1 John chapter 1, we want to look at the first four verses of this opening chapter for a sermon I've entitled, The Word of Life. Just follow along as I read. What was from the beginning, what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we have looked at and touched with our hands concerning the Word of Life, And the life was manifested and we've seen it and testify and proclaim to you the eternal life which was with the Father and was manifest to us. What we have seen and heard, we proclaim to you also, so that you too may have fellowship with us. And indeed, our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son, Jesus Christ. These things we write to you, so that our joy may be made complete. The church was in turmoil, there were teachers espousing strange new doctrines, there was a lack of love in the fellowship, and an absence of holiness in the life of many individuals. Long-term members were leaving and there were left behind people who were bewildered and wondering if they were standing on the right side of this new divide. This might sound like a description of a modern day church wrestling with the issues of music or church growth, but in fact it's a description of a church as an Asian minor at the end of the first century. In them were many believers struggling to understand the events that were going on in their myths and were in danger of buying into the false ideas that were being presented to them. Well, it was to churches like this that the apostle John, the aged and last remaining apostle, wrote his first letters. And in it, this book, he lays out again the apostolic faith that these Christians had received, and then reassures them that they, those who accept that apostolic faith, are the true believers and children of God, while the others, those who reject it, are unbelievers and actually the children of the devil. And you know, in our day as well, there's a lot of people who are trying to redefine Christianity. Either by denying the truths revealed in the Bible, or by suggesting that those truths do not have to actually impact our life in the way of holiness. Certainly there's those on the outside, people like Dan Brown, author of the Da Vinci Codes, who try to hammer away at the faith by making it into a myth story. But there's also those who are inside the church, like the Episcopal bishops, who subvert it. And how many TV evangelists and so-called Christian authors are there who claim to speak for God and yet deny the truth that He has revealed in His Word? You know, Christians today need wisdom and they need discernment. Even as John's readers did. Christians today need reassurance that their faith, the one that was heard from the beginning, the Word of Life, is the true faith, the one laid down by the apostles as recorded in the scripture. It's for this reason that we're starting a new book, the book of 1 John. And my hope for you as we go through this, if you are a believer, is that you will have a clearer understanding of the faith because of it, and a greater confidence that you indeed have and possess this true faith. On the other hand, if you're not a believer, my hope for you is that you would come to a knowledge of that fact and that God, by His grace, would call you still into the fellowship with Himself and also with His Son. So either way, I hope that 1 John is going to be an eye-opening book for you. Today, as we open up the first chapter, we want to look at the four verses that he starts with. where we find the apostle laying out his own historical experience of this word of life and his desire that us, by believing what he proclaims, would find fellowship with him in the Father and in the Son. When we do that and to unwrap this this morning, we want to pray and ask God to give us His grace before we dig into His Word. Our Father, I do pray for grace and mercy. I pray that You'd open up our hearts and minds, that You'd pierce through the darkness and the fog that envelops us. I pray for people here who are not saved. Lord, almost every one of them who is not knows the truth, but it has not lodged itself in their hearts. I pray that You would awaken sinners to the truth of the gospel and to the reality of their lostness, and that you would call them. And for those of us who do know you, Lord, that you'd strengthen us in this faith and an understanding of it, that we might cling to it as people try to redefine and wash away the truth that alone can save our souls. So meet with us as we look at your word this morning. For we ask now in Christ's name, Amen. Well, as I look at the text, there's four verses and I see four things in it. The first thing that I see related to the apostles and this word of life that he's going to speak about is the experience they had. The experience they had with this word of life. Secondly, the message that they proclaimed. Meaning the message the apostles proclaimed. Third, the goal that they sought. That's in verse three. And fourth, the joy that they received. So the experience they had, the message they proclaimed, the goal they sought, and the joy that they received, the experience they had. Hey, by the way, what is this week an anniversary of? Do you remember? only the greatest technological achievement of mankind landing on the moon. Do you remember that event? Some of you remember that event? I always thought I remembered this because I remember seeing the moon landing when I was in school. I remember us around the black and white TVs. You remember the kind that they would bring out that looked like they were industrial made by 3M or something like that. And I remember watching this but looking back it could have been the case because this happened in July and I never went to summer school so I must have seen one of the later moon landings. But if you recall, this whole event came about because the Russians had beat us by launching Sputnik as a satellite into space. And Americans feared they were falling behind the Russians in science. And so President Kennedy announced as a goal that the United States would put a man on the moon by the end of the decade. And of course, we did it. Now there's people who said we never would. And folks, there are people who say, we never did. It was all a hoax. Now can you imagine Neil Armstrong, the man who actually stepped foot on the moon, when he heard people deny that we had ever been there? I'm sure he thought, a hoax? Some publicity stunt? I was there, I stepped on the surface, I held the rocks in my hand, I saw the earth from the moon. I'm wondering if perhaps that's the way John felt. in his day when people were denying that Jesus Christ was the Son of God who had come into the flesh. There were some who were saying that Jesus was not a real human being. He just appeared as a human being. That was known as Docetism. There are others who said that Jesus was a mere man that the Holy Spirit, the Eternal Logos, came upon. Not an incarnation, but an adoption, as they would say. John says that's not the way it was. Instead, he starts by speaking in verse 1 of his own experience and that of the apostles when he says, that which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our own eyes, which we have looked upon and touched with our own hands concerning the word of life. Now, this is the first part of a very long and complicated sentence that extends for three verses. But I think already there are several questions that have to be asked. First of all, what does John mean when he says, that which was from the beginning? From what beginning? Secondly, who or what is the word of life that he's referring to? And what's significant about the fact that the apostles saw, heard, and touched it? Well, that was from the beginning. What beginning? Is he talking about the beginning of creation? Like it says in Genesis? In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. You remember, that's what one of the astronauts said when he first saw the earth from orbit. He said, in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth, and that was broadcast. He said afterwards, he said, I could think of nothing else to say, and I don't think there's anything more appropriate to say. Remember that Russian cosmonaut, Yuri Gagarin, he said, was reported to have said that when I was there, he said, I saw no God, and I saw no angels. Well, years later, he denied that vehemently. He said, I never said that. That was a propaganda piece. He said, I wore a cross around my neck when I went up. Well, maybe John, speaking of the word of life, meaning the word that came to Adam and Eve in the garden when they first fell, and the first announcement, the Proto-Evangelion, the first gospel was given to them, that someday one of their descendants, the seed of the woman, would crush the head of the serpent. Or perhaps John is speaking about the beginning as the beginning of the gospel. Did you know that Mark opens his gospel with these words? This is the beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. Luke writing to Theophilus, by the way, that's who Luke was written to. He was written to an individual. He spoke of the things accomplished among us just as they were handed down to us by those who were, from the beginning, eyewitnesses and servants of the Word. You see, the apostles were those eyewitnesses and servants of the Word who handed down the accounts that were given. And it's possible that that's what John means. Or is it possible that John is echoing the words of his own Gospel? When he said this, In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being by Him, and apart from Him, nothing has come into being that has come into being. In Him was life, and this life was the light of men. I think it's most likely that the last one is what he's talking about. And that the eternal life, this eternal word that he's speaking of, is both the gospel, but Jesus himself, who is the center and the content of that gospel. And what he's saying is, look, we've experienced him firsthand. They heard his teaching, this word of life, as he walked among them. They saw him with their own eyes. They touched him. Especially, remember, after he was resurrected. They had heard accounts that Jesus rose from the dead, but people believe wild things like Elvis really didn't die because didn't you see his body? I mean, it was wax and he was sweating and dead people don't sweat. I thought the women were crazy. Guys always think women are crazy. And the women always know it's the guys who are crazy. But then he was, they were all together. The doors were locked because they were afraid. And all of a sudden they look out of the corner of their eye, and there he is. Well, what would you do? We read these accounts and go, oh. So this is why I'm always on you, people. I said, what did they feel? What do you think? And I've had people ask me, well, why do you always meet me? Why all these feeling questions? I said, because when you see a dead guy alive, it has an emotional impact on your life. And they went, oh! You ever had an experience where you were so terrified you literally could not move? Look, he said, check, feel me. He said, I'm not a ghost. A ghost doesn't have flesh and bones like I do. Check and see that it's really me. And you remember Thomas wasn't there. They told the story. They said, no, Thomas, the women aren't crazy. We saw him. And Thomas, no way. He was so crushed in his hopes that he said, unless I put my fingers into the nail prints in his hand, unless I put my hand into the hole in his butt, I will not believe. And a week later, They're all together, Thomas is there, Jesus pulls the same trick. He's just there among them. I don't know what happened, I'm imagining all the other apostles like, ooh, Thomas is here. But I know what Jesus did, he said, Thomas, come here. See my hands, put your fingers in the marks. and see my side here and put your hand in my side and stop being unbelieving but believe." And Thomas didn't bother to do it, he fell on his face and he said, my Lord and my God. I often wonder if the reason we have so little zeal and energy for God is because we're just not convinced of the reality of the things that we read. Peter assured us in a second letter, he said, we did not follow cleverly devised tales when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty. For when he received honor and glory from God the Father, when the voice came to him from the majestic glory, saying, this is my Son whom I love, with whom I am well pleased, we ourselves heard the voice that came from heaven when we were with him on the sacred mountain. Here's the first application that comes out of this. Listen carefully. The Christian faith is not based on philosophical speculations or ancient myths. Rather, it's grounded in the reality of history itself. Do you remember when they announced a year or two ago that they found the tomb of Jesus? Sure enough, they said they found a tomb and it had names like Yeshua bar Yosef, which would be Jesus son of Joseph. That can only be one person, right? There's another name, Maria, well that's got to be Mary. Yosef, that has to be his brother, Yosef. Miriam, that must be Mary Magdalene and Yehudah bar Yahoshua. That's got to be Joseph, son of Joshua, son of Jesus. That must have meant that Miriam is Mary Magdalene and they must have been married and had children. And this stuff went on up on the Discovery Channel. Hey, God bless Ted Koppel, who I doubt is a believer. He did a program on this, looking at it, a critical thing. And he brought all the experts on, and they debunked this thing. And the people who had quoted in the book, they said, and in the document, they said, we never said those things. They said, you can't take a DNA test from some bones and tell if two people are married. The only way to tell if they're married is to watch them together and see if they fight. That's the way you know if they're married. Good night. But that is not what amazed me. What amazed me were the number of people who said, you know, even if these were the bones of Jesus, it wouldn't make any difference for our faith. I agree with the rabbi. He told me a singer said, nonsense. Paul himself said, if Christ be not raised, our faith is worthless and you're still in your sins. I thought, if an unbelieving Jewish rabbi can see it, why can't these supposed followers of Jesus? It rises or falls on the historical reality. If there was no Jesus of Nazareth, you're perishing and I'm a fool for telling you what I'm telling you. And see, what the false teachers were saying in John's day, they were denying the historical incarnation of the Son of God. John's saying, not only did it happen, but we were there, we experienced it. Second thing we find in the text, though, is the message they proclaimed. And here's actually a parenthesis. It's a very complicated, convoluted sentence, but I have no complaint about it, because the Holy Spirit inspired John to write it, so I'll work with it. But he goes on, really, in the second verse, which is kind of a parenthesis, to explain what this Word of Life was. And it says, it was concerning the Word of Life, and this Life was manifested, We came into history and we have seen and testified and proclaimed to you the eternal life which was with the Father and manifested us. You remember the conversation that took place between Jesus and Martha at Lazarus' funeral? Martha said to Jesus, Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. Do you know what she's really saying is, you messed up. We gave you that. We told you to come. You didn't come. But there's still faith in you. Listen, she says, even now I know whatever God asks you, He will give you. Now what in the world does that mean? That you can produce wine for my brother's funeral? No, she means that even now, if you ask God, He'll give whatever you want. Jesus answered and said, your brother will rise again. Martha said, I know he'll rise again at the resurrection on the last day. Jesus said, I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live again even if he dies. And everyone who lives and believes in me will never die. I didn't have to wait for the last day for the resurrection. The one who had the power of life within himself stood right before. In him was life, and this life was the light of men, John 1.4. I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father but by me, John 14.6. You know, the term word that's used here, word of life, is the Greek word logos, from which we get logic. Now, the Hebrews thought of the word primarily as the word of God's power. Let there be light, and there was light. But in the Greek understanding, the Logos was the animating life force of the universe, the logic, the reason, what held the entire universe together. Augustine was a student of Greek philosophy before he became a Christian, and he said about the Logos that he always read about it in philosophy, but nowhere did he ever read that the word, the Logos, became flesh and dwelt among us. Remember what the angel said? And you shall call him Emmanuel, God with us. What's the response to that kind of talk? Foolishness, say the Greeks. Blasphemy, say the Jews. Shirk, says the Muslims. Just one among many, say the Hindus. And just your opinion, say the Americans. It was a life manifest, says John. And we have seen it and we testify and proclaim to you the life, eternal life, which was with the Father and was manifest to us. Here's the second application. While John speaks in a specific way of the testimony to the apostles to whom Jesus was manifest, is it not true that He's also manifest Himself to us and we are to testify? Do you understand what I'm saying? None of us can say like they did, what we held on, we saw Him, we touched Him. But has not Christ been manifest to us? Is it not true if we're a believer that we once were blind but now we see? Did not the God who said let light shine in the darkness shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ? Let me ask you this, do you take the command of Christ to be a witness for Him, seriously? Or have you become cowed by our culture and silenced by our critics? If we really come to the point where we agree with them that everyone's entitled to their own opinion and it's just rude to say that somebody's religion is wrong while yours is right? Let me tell you something. Everyone does have the right to their own opinion. They have the right to be wrong, fooled and deceived and headed for hell. But don't you think we should correct them and make them wise and deliver them from deception and ward them off as they try to plunge into hell? Brothers, that is not rudeness. That is love and compassion and mercy. I read last year of a man who was walking by a house, and he noticed smoke coming from the side. The whole side of the house was in flames. There was a grill that someone had on their deck, and it had caught the house on fire. He moved quickly, banged on the door, and there was nobody there, but he was convinced there was somebody in there. I don't remember how he thought that, but he broke the door open. He went in there. There was a girl was sleeping. The house was already filling with smoke, and he pulled her out, a teenage girl, and rescued her. Now, you suppose that man, after all of that, should be charged with illegal entry? Should the owners demand that he pay for a new lock? Was that man not a hero rather than a criminal? To save a person from physical flames is nothing compared to saving them from the eternal flames. And when they had summoned him, they commanded him not to speak and teach in this name of Jesus. But Peter and John answered and said to them, whether it is right in the sight of God to give heed to you rather than God, you be the judge. But as for us, we cannot stop speaking about the things that we have seen and have heard. Acts 4, 18-20. You show boldness like that? Do you even speak to your co-workers and family members about God? If not, who will? In the paper yesterday that Stan left at my house, there was a story about a woman from Korea. She was a mother of three. She was just executed by the North Korean government for smuggling Bibles into that country. On the one hand, that's a tragic thing to have three little kids now without a mother. But on the other hand, what a glorious and honorable thing to have a mother who loved Jesus so much that she laid down her life that others may know. Let goods and kindred go, this mortal life also, the body they may kill, God's truth, abide it still, his kingdom is forever. The message John proclaimed is the word we are to proclaim, that the Son of God was manifest, Christ was crucified, resurrected, exalted to the right hand of God, and someday will return in glory. We must testify and proclaim this, because this is the life that was manifest. Third thing you see in the text, though, is that the goal that they sought, the apostles, What's the goal? What's the purpose? What's the desired outcome of proclaiming this Word of Life? He tells them in verse 3, He says, He repeats this again, Why? So that you too might have fellowship with us, and indeed our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son. Why did the Son of God come? Why was He manifest? Why did He need to live a perfectly righteous life? Why did He have to die? Humans die because they're sinners. Jesus was a human, but He was no sinner. There's a lot of places in the Bible where you could answer that, but probably no place clearer than 1 Peter 3.18 where it says, For Christ also died for sins once for all, the just for the unjust, so that he might bring us to God. You see, that's our problem. That's why 800,000 people were murdered in Rwanda in 45 days. By the way, they had no guns, they clubbed and macheted each other. I read about one, there was a family that lived next to each other for 30 years, and the dad of the one family chopped off the arm of a five-year-old girl in the other family. That's why our country has missiles pointing every direction, that's why there's wars and rumors of war, that's why there's kids that are rebellious. It's not because you're too overbearing, it's because they've got sin in their heart and they're rebelling against their Creator, so they show that rebellion and rebellion against their parents. Let me give you some encouragement, parents. It's not primarily you that they resent. It's primarily God. They just happen to express it towards you. That's why there's corruption in the highest offices of our land. That's why there's petty theft in the poorest slums in our city. The problem is that we're alienated from God, and Christ came to bring us back to God. And when we're reconciled with God through Christ, then we have fellowship with one another. And through that, through the overflow of our fellowship with Him, comes the fellowship we have as believers. I just received a book in the mail that I ordered several days ago. It was by a black conservative author. His name is Thomas Sowell. It's a book entitled, The Conflict of Visions. And then he asked this question, he asked, why is it that you have people on the left and people on the right with such dramatically different understandings and visions of what we should be and what we must do as a nation? And he said, really what it comes down to is the fact that they're two diametrically opposed worldviews primarily centered on what is human nature. Those who are conservative see man as flawed, what Christians would call sinful. That being the case, we should find ways to limit or mitigate evil that we're prone to. We should divide up power and have checks and balances. We should limit government, which is the biggest threat to our freedom, and we should be careful about getting involved in wars. On the other hand, liberals see man as basically good. It's just society that makes him bad. If he's given the right environment, the right education, the proper resources, he will choose good and the right and the noble. Rather than being the problem, government is the solution to most problems. I have to tell you this, liberals think they can re-educate people out of sin. Conservatives think what you need is a stronger chain to keep the mad dog human nature in check, but neither of them have an answer for fixing the problem. The only real answer is one that God has provided through His Son and His death on the cross. Only when we're at peace with God can we be at peace with others and with ourselves. Politics is not the answer. The Word of Life is the answer. Third application, there's two parts to it. We can only have unity in the church, or let me put it this way again, we cannot have unity in the church except on the basis of common beliefs in Christ. Unity and truth is the only thing that holds the church together. Not skin color or ethnic background or the fact that we all like Ludafisk. It's not that we're all Packers fans. Because, brother, I am a Vikings fan and the son of a Vikings fan. I am on trial today for the hope of the Vikings to go to the Super Bowl. And I don't think Brett Farve is answering, but that's a whole different story. And listen, we can have disagreements on lesser issues in theology, can't we? We don't all understand things the same way. But on the basis, you've got to have agreement. The second thing that comes out of this is it's not possible to have a relationship with God while rejecting Jesus Christ. Remember I think I told you a story about John Piper one time, I was listening to the program, where there were missionaries going over to Iraq when we first invaded. And of course it was on the news thing, and they said, now why do you, why do you have one? And they bring a Muslim cleric on there. And they said, well why are you sending new Baptist missionaries? Southern Baptist, that's what we are. Sending Southern Baptist missionaries over. And they said, well we want them to know the love of God and to know that. And the cleric said, we know God, we know Allah, we don't need you. And the guy just fumbled over for a few more words and Piper said, I was screaming at the radio, tell them, you can only know God through Jesus Christ! Look, if the issue is you just need people who do nicer things, then let's all join the Rotary or the Lions Club. The issue is there's no salvation apart from faith in Christ. The Bible says there's one God and one mediator between man and God, the man Jesus Christ who gave himself a ransom for all, a testimony at the proper time. The disciples said, and there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name, no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved, Acts 4.12. Now, I want to tell you folks, you're going to be called rude and narrow-minded and bigoted. They may charge you with hate speech and they may take you away to jail. But we can never, ever, ever give up the belief that Jesus is the one and only way to God. Because without that, we cannot have fellowship with the Father. Here's the last thing I see in the text. The joy they experienced. The joy they experienced. Now, I have to say, most people, non-Christians, do not associate Christianity with joy. They see Christians as dour, straight-laced, and dull. They see God as a cosmic killjoy, kind of like when you go to Chuck E. Cheese, and the gophers keep coming up, and you've got that hammer, and you're nailing them down. God's just waiting for someone to have joy so He can smack them on the head and make them miserable. There's a scene in the movie Pollyanna where the ever-happy Pollyanna is talking to the pastor of the local church and he's a hellfire and brimstone type preacher thundering the commands of God and Pollyanna sees him practically and she asks him, why don't you ever preach the be glad text? What are you talking about? Rejoice and be glad. Rejoice in the Lord always. Again, I say rejoice. Now, she's right. Not only are there warnings and threats in the Bible, but there's also exhortations and celebrations of joy. Joy in God and joy in Christ. In fact, the threats and warnings given in the Bible are for people who will not find their joy in Christ. Do you remember what God told the people of Israel? He said, you know what? He said, the day is going to come where I'm going to send you into bondage. I'm going to send you into slavery because you did not serve the Lord with joy and gladness. So here's what I'm telling you. Your choice is this. You can find your joy in Jesus Christ, or he's going to punish you in hell forever for not doing so. And let me tell you, some of you guys are non-Christians, you're young, you're too cool for this kind of stuff. You're not even happy in the first place. It's not Christians cutting their bodies. It's not Christians OD'ing on drugs. It's not Christians, you know, singing songs of misery and unhappiness and loneliness. You guys sing it. It's Christian songs. They're happy. All other songs, they're unhappy. Ever notice that? The only time they sing about happiness is, I got really drunk this day. Right? They're all miserable. Because this is our secret. Remember the line I told you my friend Carl said? He said, happiness in Christianity, he said it's like a can of Campbell's soup. And the unbelievers only get to lick the labels on the outside. That's why you don't have happiness. Well, one of the great things about the gospel is it begins to transform us from self-centered people concerned only about our own happiness to being people who are concerned about the happiness of others. But notice what John says here. It says, we write these things to you so our joy may be full. And that's the correct translation. Do you know why? Because for the Christian, the joy that you experience, listen carefully, the joy that you experience as a Christian never comes to fullness until you share it with someone else. I remember when I was visiting Jeff and Dina in England, and my dad likes to eat. And he had fish and chips somewhere. Oh, you've got to try this. You've got to try this. You've got to try this. You've got to try this. He had to try it. You know why? Because he wanted you to try it. Why does he care? I mean, he enjoys it because his joy is heightened if he lets me in on the great secret of this greasy fish and chips that they put in the newsprint type stuff, you know? Only when others enjoy what we enjoy, And others find pleasure in what we know brings deep and lasting pleasure. Only when we divide the spoils can we rejoice in the fullest. That's why John wanted these people to have a clear understanding of their faith. And that's why the elders of this church want you to have a clear understanding. That's why we're always encouraging you to get involved in a Bible study. Come to church. Be involved in a prayer group. Why? Because this is going to increase your happiness. And if it increases your happiness, I guarantee, I can speak for all the elders, it will increase our happiness, will it not? And if it increases our happiness, and it increases your happiness, it'll redound to the glory of Jesus Christ who made us happy. So Jesus gives glory, you get happy, I get happy, everybody's happy, everybody's pleased, nobody loses. Now, what I'm telling you folks is this. Know, and know deeper and deeper, this Word of Life. Testify and proclaim Him to the world. Experience the fellowship that we have with other believers and with God the Father and His Son, Jesus Christ, and make your joy complete by expanding this ring of fellowship. This is the message that we believe. This is the message that we proclaim. This is the Word of Life. Our Father in God. You know, sometimes it's going back to the basics, what we already know. I think about football players, wide receivers, they throw the ball to them and they forget to catch the ball before they run. I often wonder if that's what the problem in the church is. We've assumed the gospel and gone on to secondary matters like politics and abortion and things like that. What we should have done was made sure people had the gospel first before we addressed those secondary matters. Father, I know for the people here, all of us, there are times where we have not found our joy in you. We find our joy in money and success and all the things that the Bible says that are detestable to God. Not in and of themselves, but because they're a substitute. They're idolatry. And I know for the unbelievers here, these are just words. All they hear me doing is thundering like Pollyanna's preacher. They don't realize. They don't understand. But which of us ever understood until you opened our eyes? We pray for the people here who don't know you and that you would open their eyes. Most of the kids in this church still do not know you. I pray that you would save them. I don't want them to be well-educated biblical students who die and go to hell because they've never experienced the love of Christ. So Father, work in all of our hearts and then help us to be good witnesses. There's dozens and dozens of people that come into contact with us every week who don't even know that we're Christians. Father, I pray that you'd give us a boldness to share the gospel to more and more people, and that you'd call people through them, and that it would redound back in glory to you because of what you've done through your Son, Jesus Christ. We thank you for the fellowship we can have with both you and your Son because of what he's done. We pray for great blessings upon us in the days to come. We ask now in Jesus' name. Amen. Well, thanks for sticking with me, friends. If you want to stand, we're going to close by singing a song. found on the back of the