Turn over to Proverbs chapter 23 verse 7. Proverbs chapter 23 verse 7. Proverbs chapter 23 verse 7. Our pastor's out of town today and I think he's going to be gone next week too, isn't he? Okay, he'll be out for two Sundays and so if you're visiting with us we're glad you're here. And we want to encourage you to come back next Sunday, we're having a guest speaker, but then the following Sunday our pastor will be back and we'd like you to meet him and hear him. But it is good having you today. Proverbs 23, verse 7. There is a secular moral revolution in our culture today in the areas of sexuality, abortion, homosexuality, and transgenderism. And these secular viewpoints have influenced all the institutions in our country. They've affected public and private schools. They've affected universities, television, the print media, Hollywood, corporations, legal system, and yes, the church. I want to talk to you about one of these today. I want to talk to you about transgenderism and how we are to minister to people that express feelings of being a male or a female in the wrong body. And I want to make three points this morning. First of all, I want to talk to you about the worldview that drives the transgender debate. The second thing I want to talk to you as the cause of the feelings that are referred to as gender dysphoria. And then the third thing I want to talk about is the church's response to this. So let's take a look at the worldview. In Proverbs chapter 7, rather in chapter 23 verse 7, it says, for as he thinks within himself, so he is. It's easy to get caught up in the transgender debate But what we need to understand is that the opinions and the beliefs are all surface, the beliefs are all surface effects. That's what I was trying to get at. They're all surface effects of something much deeper, all right? Like all current events, whether we're talking about transgenderism or homosexuality or anything, like all current events, We need to understand the worldview that drives those things. Everybody has ideas. Everybody has beliefs. And these ideas and beliefs form a person's worldview. A worldview is just the way that a person views the world, the way they interpret the world, the way they interpret life, and so on. A person's worldview affects who they are. For as he thinks within himself, so he is. And so all the decisions and all the choices that people make are shaped by their worldview. Everybody has one. Whether they know it or not, everybody has one. Now it's very common for people to have multiple and even conflicting worldviews at the same time. For example, an unbeliever who has a predominantly secular worldview may actually hold to parts of the Christian worldview. They may believe in God. They may even pray. A believer who has a predominantly Christian worldview at the same time may hold to parts of a secular worldview. They may believe that God used evolution and that's theistic evolution. And so integrating secular worldviews with Christian worldview is very common in counseling today as it is in everything else. It's common in everything. Well, the sad thing is, is that the Christian worldview has been in decline for decades. And we're not only losing our culture to a secular worldview, but we're losing our children and our grandchildren to a secular worldview. We're not teaching our children how to develop a Christian worldview. And they're being taught and they're being exposed to kind of a caricature of Christianity. In other words, a caricature of Christianity that Christianity is irrational. It's not rational, it's irrational. That Christianity conflicts with science. That Christianity is anti-intellectual. So it's very important that we help our children and our grandchildren to develop a Christian worldview. Charles Haddon Spurgeon, that great preacher, he said, quote, the gospel is like a caged lion. It does not need to be defended. It just needs to be let out of its cage. Now the cage today is the sacred secular split. And I'm gonna explain what that is. That's very important that we understand this in order to understand what's going on in our culture. The sacred-secular split. This worldview basically relegates Christianity to a matter of merely personal belief. Francis Schaeffer, one of the 20th century's great theologians, he died in 1984. He said that Christianity is not just religious truth, but total truth. It does not just address religion and morals and ethics and preferences and beliefs, but it also addresses science, anthropology, astronomy, biology, et cetera. You see, the problem that Christians face today is we are not equipped to critique and argue with these secular worldviews. And so the first step in equipping us to do that is that we have to reject the sacred-secular split. In other words, the sacred-secular split, that life is divided into two compartments. Here's the sacred, here's the secular. On one hand, we have the sacred compartment. We have the sacred category. Now the sacred category is limited to religion, morals, ethics, personal beliefs, things considered to be private, things considered to be personal, things that everybody doesn't agree on, all right? And then you have, on the other hand, you have the secular compartment, or the secular category, and this category includes facts. science, logic, rationality, things that are public, things that they say everybody pretty much agrees with. Now, others have expressed this split And remember, it's not what you call it sacred-sacred, it's just you need to remember there is a split. A lot of people use different analogies to describe this. For example, some use the analogy private, that would be sacred, public, that would be secular. Some use the term heart, that would be sacred. brain that would be secular. Others use values that would be sacred, facts that would be secular, and on and on and on. As a matter of fact, Francis Schaeffer He uses the analogy of a two-story building and he says on the first floor of that building you have science and logic and facts and reason, everything related to public truth. Now, on the second floor, you have personal experiences, personal feelings, personal beliefs, religion, morals, ethics, things related to personal, private things. Now, let me just say, none of this is new. This is as old as the world, all right? I'm not gonna go all the way back to the beginning of the world, but we do see it in Genesis 3, this split. But I'm gonna go back to the days of Paul and the apostles. Jesus and the apostles, rather. And they dealt with this in the philosophy called Gnosticism. In other words, now the Greeks, they used a different example of it. They still had the split, but they called it the spirit, which would be the secular, and the body, which would be the spirit, which would be the private, which would be the sacred, and then the body, which would be the secular. So this has been a problem in the church ever since there was a church, and it's still a big problem today. And so it's vital, it's very important that Christians learn to recognize the sacred-secular split when you're talking to people. All right. Here's why. It is the main weapon used to invalidate the Christian view when discussing any controversial issue like transgenderism. Now the reason many believers integrate their Christian worldview with a secular worldview is because, is the belief that the Christian worldview is insufficient. And like I said, those who have been through the counseling classes, they understand that. I mean, that's true in counseling, it's true in everything, all right? But we Christians, we integrate parts of a secular worldview because we believe that the Christian worldview really doesn't explain some things over here. And so we borrow portions of a secular worldview because we believe that's gonna provide a more holistic or complete explanation of man and the world and so on and so forth. And let me say this, that combining parts of a secular worldview is not necessarily something that we conscientiously think about and do. It's more like something that we unconsciously absorb. We unconsciously absorb that thinking, and then it becomes part of our Christian worldview. Now, like I said a while ago, it is the explanation as to why Christian arguments are ignored and rejected. That's how important this is. You see, we have to understand that unbelievers are always filtering everything that we say through this sacred-secular grid, split. When Christians state their position on an issue, such as transgenderism, using an objective moral truth, like scripture, all right, unbelievers think that we are just merely expressing our personal opinion, that we're merely expressing our religious views over here in this sacred, that's the sacred compartment. You see, what happens is the sacred-secular split neutralizes the objective substance of anything that we say. You see, secularists promote the idea that they are unbiased, you know, that they're rational, that they're thinkers, and so on and so forth, and they denounce Christians as being bias and irrational. And so that becomes a huge problem for us. Now, contrary to this sacred, secular split, is the biblical worldview that teaches that Christianity is a unified system of truth, all right? And this Christian worldview, which is a unified system of truth, applies and speaks to all social issues. It speaks to science, biology, astronomy. It speaks to ethics, morality. It speaks to all areas and all subjects. All areas and all subjects reflect the mind of the creator. And so there is no sacred-secular split in scripture. You see, the mistake that Christians make is accepting the idea that biblical doctrine, accepting biblical doctrine as strictly an individual and personal belief instead of an overarching system of truth. We have to change our thinking, we have to get that out of our mind. And so whatever area of study you're doing, you are learning about the structure and function of God's creation. It's all God-related. But you see what happens when our Christianity is privatized. The result is a fragmented and disjointed view of life. Our faith is locked away in the sacred compartment, in the private realm, and it doesn't influence in a very practical way our day-to-day life, our occupation, what we're majoring in college, and what we're doing. It doesn't affect anything over here in the secular and public realm. It's like we're living in two separate worlds, our religious life and our everyday life. And there was a time when I became very frustrated with this tension, and I really believe that there's a lot of believers who become very frustrated with this tension, this pull that's going on. And we really do want to know how to integrate our faith into every aspect of our life, but we just don't know how to do it in a very practical way. You see, if you don't develop a Christian worldview, you will unconsciously absorb a secular worldview. One of my favorite authors is Nancy Percy. She wrote, and I'm quoting from her, here's what she wrote, quote, a set of ideas for interpreting the world is like a philosophical toolbox. If Christians do not develop their own tools to analyze issues, they will borrow someone else's tools. And the point is, that we need to learn how, we need to learn and build on a Christian worldview so we know how to address the issues that we run into day after day so we don't keep borrowing from the secular's toolbox. So, how do we approach this issue of transgenderism? Well, first of all, we want to make sure that our toolbox has the biblically-based tools that we need to communicate the Christian message. And we do that by understanding that the Christian worldview combines both sacred and secular. As a matter of fact, there is no secular. We use the word secular, but really there is no secular. Everything is related to the creator who made it. It's impossible to secularize anything. Everything is related to God, the one who created everything. And so we do this by understanding the Christian worldview combines the sacred and the secular, the public and the private into one all-encompassing truth. concept, and realizing that in every area of life, whether it be science or whether it be religion, there are biblical principles that apply, and we cannot continue to dilute biblical truth by continuing to borrow from secularists' toolbox. So, The worldview, we have to understand this worldview of the sacred and the secular split, the split. All right, now I wanna talk to you about the cause of the discomforting feelings that a man or a woman experiences that convinces them that they are in the wrong body. Traditionally, as you know, when a baby is born, Based on the biology of that baby, the doctor announces it's a boy or it's a girl. Well, see, a transgender person is a person that says that their inner feelings of being a male or a female do not correspond with their biological gender. Do you see the split? There's the feelings, which are up here in the sacred category of personal experience, personal belief, and then there is the body that is over here in the secular. You see, it's all about feelings and what the person thinks. The key word is a word that we hear over and over, assigned. Instead of a person's gender being a biological fact, Gender is arbitrary. Gender is subjective. A person is assigned a gender based on their feelings, their preferences, what they think. The accepted treatment is not to help a person change their feelings to match their body, but to change their body to match their feelings. And they do that through hormone therapy and or surgery. The uncomfortable feelings of being in the wrong body is called gender dysphoria. And the word dysphoria simply means dissatisfied or an uncomfortable feeling. It's a person who has a dissatisfied or uncomfortable feeling about their gender, their biological gender. My body does not match who I am. In that statement, you can identify the split. There is the body, secular, that's the biology, which you can see, which is fact, which, okay, and I am, which is the sacred or the private, all right, feelings, preferences, So biology is really irrelevant to this whole thing. You see, the Bible gives an explanation for the uncomfortable and troubling feelings that these people have. Now, these feelings are real. I don't deny the feelings. They do feel that, all right? Gender dysphoria is what some people, normal people, experience living in a fallen and a sin-cursed world. Let me say it again. Gender dysphoria is what some people, normal people, experience living in a fallen, sin-cursed world. We're all aware of problems, aren't we? We're all aware of wars and the cruelties of all descriptions that we hear about and the turmoil everywhere. You can't pick up the morning paper and read it without seeing it. You can't watch the evening news without being aware of it. You can't browse the internet without knowing about all the problems and troubles and difficulties. We're always reminded of all the troubles and the unhappiness in the world. People's lives are filled with this. Our lives are filled with this. You see, the Bible is not a detached and theoretical book. The Bible comes to you and me and everybody else, the Bible comes to you and me and everybody else, and the Bible says, I want to talk to you about you. I want to talk to you about why you're having all these difficulties in your life. I want to talk to you about why you're having these troubling and disturbing thoughts that you're having. I want to talk to you about why you're anxious and why you're depressed. The Bible is a very, very practical book. So how are we to understand ourselves? How are we, and I mean everybody, transgenders and everybody else, how are we to understand ourselves? Well, the Bible begins with, in the beginning, God. You see, all other views begin and end with man. The Bible says in order to understand man and his problems, you have to begin with God. Typically, we want to begin with our problems, don't we? And because we want to begin with our problems, we don't see the big picture. And so the Bible puts life in context, and then it goes on to explain the particulars. You see, the Bible teaches that we cannot understand life until we realize that behind everything and that before everything is God. You see, the Bible says, and this is what divides people. Here's what the Bible says. Now the serpent was more crafty than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said to the woman, indeed, as God said, you shall not eat from any tree of the garden. You see, the Bible teaches that there is another world. The Bible teaches that there is a spiritual world, a world of spirits. And one of those was Lucifer, and he rebelled. And the Bible teaches that this horrible and powerful being, Satan, entered God's perfect world and by tempting Adam and Eve, brought to pass all the terrible things that you and I experience. Man is very different from what he was back then. Man is in the grip of an evil power that Paul calls in 1 Corinthians 4, 4, the God of this world. You see, that's why all these alternative explanations to life and the problems and the difficulties are hopelessly inadequate. They don't see the big picture. Paul characterizes life. He characterizes life in Romans 8, verse 18, and he says this, the sufferings of this present time. Well, we all know about those, don't we? In other words, this present time is full of sufferings. And in verse 22, he says that the whole creation groans and suffers. And then in verse 23, Paul says, even we ourselves grown within ourselves. Life is tough. Life is full of tragedy and heartache and difficulties. In first Corinthians 10, 13, Paul says all problems are common to man. We sit in these counseling offices and we don't sit there biting our fingernails worried about somebody coming in who's gonna come up, has a problem we've never heard of. It's impossible. If you read the previous verses of that chapter, Paul is talking to the church of Corinth, if you remember, they had a lot of problems. And Paul basically says to him, these are the same problems that Moses a few thousand years earlier dealt with in the wilderness with the children of Israel. So why are the problems Moses dealt with a few thousand years before Paul the same problems Paul dealt with at the Church of Corinth, which 2,000 years later are the same problems we all deal with? Because all problems are common to man. Listen, we all have troubling and disturbing thoughts. We all have troubling and disturbing feelings. This is not unique to gender issues. People have uncomfortable thoughts and feelings about their marriage. They have uncomfortable thoughts and feelings about their job. They have uncomfortable thoughts and feelings about their finances. They have uncomfortable thoughts and feelings about everything. We all have uncomfortable thoughts. All of this is what it's like living in a fallen world. We have troubles and difficulties and uncomfortable thoughts and uncomfortable and disturbing feelings. What's new? It's not new. Paul said, in this present time, we all groan. However, he goes on to tell us that as believers, we can groan with hope. Because he says, one of these days, we and all creation in Romans 8.21 will be set free from its slavery to corruption. But unfortunately, today, we go through problems and difficulties. We all have disturbing thoughts and disturbing feelings. We all have physical and mental sufferings. But the good news, the Bible says, for believers, it's not forever. In Ephesians chapter four, verse 22, Paul says, lay aside or put off the old self. In verse 24, he says, put on the new self. In between verse 22 and 24 is an important verse 23, which says, and be renewed in your mind. Renewed simply means to be made new again, it indicates a restoration from a previous condition. You were like this, you lost it, now you're renewed to it. It implies that there was a departure from an earlier condition that we need to be restored to. You see, our fundamental problem is not so much that we do things wrong, and we do do things wrong, but that our whole outlook, our thinking is wrong. And our thinking must be renewed. We must be renewed in the spirit of our mind. A Christian is a person who has been brought back to where he was with respect to his mind. His mind is made new. Now, a Christian that has disturbing thoughts and feelings about gender or about finances or about anything, they have been given a renewed mind. A Christian who has disturbing thoughts about whatever has been given a renewed mind. And this should give them a totally different perspective on those thoughts and feelings that they're having. Now, remember, they're real. They're as real as our thoughts and feelings about our finances or our children and what we're going to happen in the future. They're as real as all of our thoughts. But because they have a renewed mind, they remember that the sacred and secular split is false and that they should view life in a singular framework of the Bible. They understand that they must not give in to their sinful desires. They believe what God says about the sin-cursed world. They believe that they can no longer trust their feelings that proceed out of a deceitful heart. Proverbs says, lean not on your own understanding. They believe that, they know that. And then they know that feelings don't determine gender and feelings don't determine a whole lot of anything. You see, God equips them like he equips the rest of us. with a renewed mind to understand and respond to the feelings and thoughts, whatever they may be, in a way that pleases God. To answer someone, the answer to someone who is struggling with gender dysphoria, these uncomfortable and disturbing thoughts about gender, The answer to them is the same as I would give to any Christian struggling with problems and difficulties, agitating thoughts and discomforting feelings. It's part of living in a fallen world. And you cannot allow your sinful desires to guide and lead you. So what is the church's response to this? Let me ask a question and then I'm gonna answer it, okay? Is it possible for a person to be transgender and be a Christian? Well, without faith and repentance, it's impossible to be a Christian. To deny one's biological gender is part of what Paul meant when he said in Romans 1 that we suppress the truth in unrighteousness. And they suppress their created gender. They believe a lie, which invalidates both general revelation, what they can see, their physical body, and inspired revelation, what the Word of God says. Now, there are many ways people suppress the truth. We all have done it. We all do it. And believing someone is in the wrong body is one of the way they suppress the truth. A person that struggles with gender identity can be a Christian. Just like a person who struggles with anger, a person who struggles with drunkenness, a person that struggles with any variety of immoral behaviors. Listen, we all struggle with something. You remember John 13, Jesus says, a new commandment I give you that you love one another even as I have loved you. What was new about that commandment? What was new about that commandment? What's new about the new commandment? Well, it's the extent and the enormity of the love that Jesus is talking about. Yeah, we are to love our neighbors, right? But we are to love fellow Christians as Christ loved us. Loving your neighbor as yourself is one thing, but as Christ loved us is something unique, something remarkable. It's a higher degree of love. It's a sacrificial love. It's a totally different kind of love. That's what's new about the New Commandment. But how do we love a Christian who is transgender, or someone who's not a Christian, but a Christian who's transgender, without sending the signal that we approve of their conviction, their lifestyle? How do we do that? Well, Paul says in 1 Corinthians 13, 6, love does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with truth. You see, affirming a person's behavior that is contrary to scripture is not the loving thing to do. But we ought to be careful because we can actually say the loving thing in a harsh and very bad way. That's why Paul reminds us, for example, to put on a heart of compassion and kindness and humility and gentleness. That's why he tells us to speak the truth in love, because there's always the possibility that we may speak the truth, but we may not do it in a very loving and compassionate way. What are we supposed to do with these people, these believers? We are to disciple them. Jesus describes the terms of discipleship when he says, if anyone wishes to come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. You see, it does not matter what physical or mental suffering a person may experience. We all have one thing in common, and Jesus called it a cross. We all have one. You see, if Jesus had lived a comfortable and easy life, then we might expect, hey, Well, we ought to be able to live a comfortable and easy life. But Jesus didn't live that. Jesus bore a cross. And sometimes, and we bear a cross too, sometimes that cross is heavy, sometimes it's lighter. But the fact is, we all have one. And for some people, that cross is gender dysphoria. It's the struggle that they're having with these thoughts, these uncomfortable and discouraging feelings of being a person in the wrong body. In Ephesians 4, Paul says, so I say and affirm together with the Lord that you walk no longer as Gentiles also walk in the futility of their mind, being darkened in their understanding, excluded from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them because of the hardness of their heart. And they, having become callous, have given themselves over to sensuality for the practice of every kind of impurity with greediness. But you did not learn Christ in this way. We need to help them like we would help anybody we were discipling to realize that a Christian is an entirely different man or woman. They've been born again, they have a new nature, they're totally different from what they used to be, and if we help them to remind themselves of this truth, then they'll realize that there's just certain things that are unthinkable for them to do. Paul says, walk no longer, refers to your whole life. You once did walk like other Gentiles, but no longer. In the past you walked like other Gentiles in the futility of their mind, Paul says. The mind refers to their total personality, their reason, their understanding, their affections. Futile means empty, aimless, lacking any kind of direction. It's a picture of a man or a woman without Christ. And that's what your life once was. But then there was this abrupt change. And to help us to understand the full force of this change, and to help them understand the full force of the change, Paul uses two words, but you. Other Gentiles are under the dominion of sin. They're walking aimlessly in every kind of impurity and sensuality, but Paul says, but you, you're different. Peter says it, over in 1 Peter 2, he says, you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God's own possession so that you may proclaim the excellence of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light for you once were not my people, but now you are the people of God. He goes on in Ephesians 4 and he says that in reference to your former manner of life that you lay aside or put off the old self, which is being corrupted in accordance with the lust of deceit, and put on the new self, which is in the likeness of God. Notice the contrast in verses 22 and 24 that I just read. You have the old self and the new self. You have corrupted, you have righteousness. You have deceit, you have truth. Paul says that the old way of life led to corrupt ways, and he refers to it as lusts of deceit. What is it that controls lusts? What are lusts? Thoughts. Strong thoughts. That's what lust means. It's a strong thought. What controls lusts? He says deceit. The power that is controlling a person is deceitful lusts, deceitful desires, thoughts. What does it do? It influences our desires and it manipulates us to those temptations. to those people who have the temptations of disturbing thoughts about gender, to those who have temptations, all of us, who have disturbing thoughts, period. You must do what anyone else is commanded to do and deny themselves. Paul says in 2 Corinthians 10, 5, he says, take every thought captive to obedience in Christ. Instead of letting the thoughts hold you captive, you are required to take the thoughts captive and the Bible teaches you how to do that. Don't allow your thoughts to hold you captive. Don't give in to your deceitful desires to live as one of the opposite sex. Paul goes on, he says, be strong in the Lord and the strength of his might, put on the full armor of God that you will able to stand against the schemes of the devil. For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against spiritual forces of wickedness. The Bible is very realistic. Bible doesn't tell you, just think positive, you know, just think positive. Keep reminding yourself that everything's going to be all right, you know, hmm, you know. Just think positive. You know, the Bible comes to us and tells us that you will have struggles, but your struggles are not unique because all problems are common to man. The word wrestle that Paul uses, we wrestle, emphasizes the intimate and ferocious nature of the conflict that we're involved in. We've all seen wrestling matches. What's the idea? It's two men grappling against one another. One's trying to throw the other one down. That's the whole point of it. It's to get the opponent off balance and throw the person down. Our opponent, the devil, is always attacking us, always trying to get us off balance is the picture Paul is giving to us. And our goal is, Paul keeps repeating like three or four times, stand firm. And if you're gonna stand firm, you gotta do two things. First of all, we've been looking at the strength of our enemy. Now we need to look at God. It says, be strong in the Lord and the power of his might. We see Christ's strength when he came into this world. He experienced weakness, he experienced troubles, he experienced hardships, but he stood firm. We see him as he's hanging on a cross. Satan, his angels, and his followers, his disciples, everyone at that point was persuaded that evil had won. But in Colossians 2.15, Paul tells us what was happening was Jesus Christ was disarming the rulers and authorities and triumphing over them. You see, the cross is the supreme paradox. Jesus appears to be suffering and dying in weakness. Then he's placed in a tomb. Then he rises from the dead. Do you see his strength and power? Then he tells you, and he tells me, and he tells all of us who have uncomfortable feelings and thoughts and behaviors and difficulties and so on, that we are not isolated individuals, but we are members of the body of Jesus Christ. We are part of this great family that we belong to him, and failing to stand will bring disgrace upon the family and upon his name. You see, there's no better proof of the gospel than when we stand firm. The second thing he says is, now put on the armor of God. Put on the armor of God. Well, why do we need the armor? Why is the armor necessary? Isn't enough to be strong in the Lord? Strength and armor is both necessary to stand firm. You see, it involves understanding and the application of biblical truth, Christian doctrine. It's a special kind of armor, and it's indicated by the terms that Paul uses to describe the armor, like truth, righteousness, faith, and salvation. And there's only one kind of person that can put that armor on and use it, and that's a Christian. You see, a believer struggling with gender dysphoria should without reservations be welcomed into the church. Now their knowledge and their understanding of God's word might be very limited. They may be babes in the Lord, and they have absorbed a lot of things that are contradictory to the Christ they profess to believe in, but we just need to disciple them, just as we disciple anybody. Over in James chapter 2, James talks about prejudice and favoritism. And he talks about how prejudice and favoritism is evil. Pastors and elders ought to set a godly example and let and let no one, transgender or otherwise, find the church to be cold and unwelcoming. All of us have temptations. All of us do. All of us have been in a difficulty or going through a difficulty, will be going through a difficulty. That's a fallen world we live in. We all have these thoughts. Paul calls them the fiery darts of the devil, where all of a sudden we have the most perverse and wicked thought come into my mind. Paul says, that's the fiery darts of the devil. And you're asking, where did that come from? Yeah, we all have them. We all have them. All of us have our temptations. And I've counseled Christians over the years that display all the decorum of morality and Christian conduct. And yet, they struggle with some of the most unmentionable thoughts, attitudes, and actions. You see, when God saved us, He chose not to remove the hardships that we go through. Instead, he gives us the strength to endure the difficulties, the disappointments, the disturbing feelings and uncomfortable thoughts that we have. And yes, we all have a cross. Father, we come to you today thanking you for your goodness and your graciousness to us in Jesus Christ our Lord. We thank you how your word speaks to every area of life. We thank you for the guidance it gives us, the practical guidance it gives us in the difficulties that we experience, in the problems that we have, in the thoughts that we have. You are not silent about any of those things. And now, Father, as we close this service, I ask your blessings upon each one that is here today. I pray for that one who may be here today struggling with uncomfortable thoughts and feelings about anything, that your word speaks to those and shows how to put those things off. We pray for our pastor and those that traveled to Pennsylvania. We ask your blessings upon them. We pray that you'll watch over them. Give them a safe trip back next week. And we pray these things in Christ Jesus. Amen.