calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. When he has brought out all his own, he goes before them, and the sheep follow him, for they know his voice. A stranger they will not follow, but they will flee from him, for they do not know the voice of strangers. This figure of speech Jesus used with them, but they did not understand what he was saying to them. So Jesus again said to them, truly, truly, I say to you, I am the door of the sheep. All who came before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not listen to them. I am the door. If anyone enters by me, he will be saved and will go in and out and find pasture. The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they might have life and have it abundantly. This is the word of the Lord. You can be seated. Let our children up for just a moment. You were the first one here. I'd give out a prize for that, but then I think that would make everybody run, and that wouldn't be good, would it? All right, some questions for you this morning. What, oh, Amelia. Hi. Good to see you. Yeah, okay. What is a door? No. Asher? Makes a way in through a wall without leaving it open. Yeah. So, is there a door here? No. So I can't just... Is there a door? Oh, hey. So I can't just walk out this way? No. Because it wouldn't work, would it? No. You'd run into the wall. I would run into the wall, wouldn't I? It would hurt. Well, it would depend on how fast I go. But yeah, it would hurt pretty bad. Yeah, what, tell me, I heard Asher, what do the rest of you think a door is for? What is the purpose of a door? Alana? You can go out and you can close it so no animals can come in. Okay, so yeah, there might be some animals that would come in through that door, some big ones, right? Yeah. Okay, like a bear? I've never seen any bears out there, but I wouldn't be surprised. Probably not a giraffe. What do you think, Adelyn? I think so do you. I know you're a thin fox. So we need a door, because if you don't have a door, when there's a snake, animals with a snake can eat. Yeah. Yeah. And what else? What do you all think? What do you think, Tabor? What do you use a door for? Do you use doors? Yeah, me too. We can't stay in this room forever. We gotta go. Right? Now, can I tell you something really weird in the Bible? Jesus calls himself by a lot of different names. And he compares himself to a lot of different things. Do you know what he said here in this text? Did you hear Mr. Fisher? He said he's a door. That's pretty weird, isn't it? I'm a door. Yeah, that's kind of funny. How do you think Jesus is like a door? You're a door because you take care of your kids. I'm a door because I've not made the connection in my brain. I believe it's there in yours. I don't see it though. What do you think, Asher? He's the way to heaven. Okay, yeah. I think that's right. And I appreciate what Asher said. Did you hear what he said? He said he is... Yeah, but I'm going to focus on the article that he used. So if you're learning in English, you have articles A, The, and all that. He said he is, what? The Way. The Way. That means the only way to heaven. All right, I want you guys to listen this morning during the sermon and I want you to be able to tell your mom or your dad, or you can come tell me afterwards, tell me, how is Jesus like a door? Okay? Yes, good job. All right, you can go have a seat. What a privilege it is to be able to do this week in and week out. Pastor Clare and I have such a wonderful opportunity to be under shepherds over you all. to be able to come here and to preach and to go through texts like this. Do you know what an immense joy and privilege it is just to be able, even as the air conditioner runs, to be able to open up the Word of God in John's Gospel and to read and to preach these words of Jesus? This is incredible. And I pray that that we would enjoy this this morning. I pray that you would pray for me and for Pastor Clare as we seek to be faithful under shepherds. This is a sobering text for us especially, but for all of us. And will you pray for your pastors as we pray for you? And let's go to the Lord in prayer as we approach His Word. Lord, You've commanded us that we would believe in You, in the Son Jesus Christ, that we would love one another just as You commanded us. Whoever keeps these commandments, as John says in his epistle, abides in God and God in him. And by this we know that he abides in us by the Spirit whom he has given us. We stand here, sit here this morning, in the joy of knowing that we can go before the throne of God, before the Father, and offer up our prayers, that we are heard by Jesus Christ as our great High Priest, as our intermediary who stands for us and who stands with us as our perfect righteousness. And You have given us, as we just sang, Your Holy Spirit who abides in every one of us who are believers and who abides in this congregational gathering, who abides in the church. Lord, we pray that You would bless the preaching of Your Word. Let me speak true words and clear words and let me teach us. how we can better love you, how we can better love one another, how we can better love a hostile world that needs to hear the gospel of grace. It's in Christ's name we pray, amen. How do you know what the voice of Jesus is in your life? How do you know what is the voice of Jesus? Is it a rote prayer that you prayed one time and you got what you wanted? Is it a thought as you're thinking driving down the highway and you pass a well-timed billboard that you take as a sign of God's intervention? Is it angel numbers? You know what those are? It's where you see numbers that correspond to particular things, like on license plates, that kind of stuff. Other signs that you look at and say, God, I don't know. But oh, that license plate tells me what I need to do now. Maybe it's like Martin Luther, who is traveling through the countryside in a thunderstorm. And he cries out, saying, Ann, I'll be a monk. Was that the voice of Jesus? I think it was probably rather when Luther was sitting down and reading through Romans and translating it and teaching it to the people. And he comes across the passage that God's righteousness is by grace, through faith. That's where God's righteousness comes from. Where do you think the voice of Jesus is speaking? That's what we're celebrating after the service next week, the Reformation, Reformation Sunday. We're celebrating the fact that Jesus' voice was not silenced. in the 16th century by the under-shepherds of the church at that time. You see, the problem with the Roman Catholic Church was not that they were saying that Jesus is not the way to the Father. There may have been some implications there, but that's not really a fair assessment. It's more that they had blocked the way to Jesus. That you had to go through a priest, or you had to go through a saint, or you had to go through Mary in order to even get to Jesus. Instead of faith and repentance, it was church tradition and penance. And those are two very different things, repentance and penance. Repentance deals with the heart. What is going on in your heart? Penance deals with external actions disconnected from the heart. Repentance deals with understanding. understanding my sin, understanding my need for a Savior, understanding who that Savior is. Penance deals with rote imitation. I have to atone for my own sin. I think this is a pretty appropriate text as we look at Reformation Sunday next week. We can see in John 10 that the context that Jesus is in here Jesus and His disciples find themselves, it's not all that different. The Jewish people needed to understand where and in whom to place their hope. The 16th century church, the Christians, needed to understand where and in whom to place their hope. Calvary Community Church, you and I need to understand where and in whom to place our hope. We need to be understanding sheep. That's what we need to be. And as we look at John 10, there are three primary characters in this figure of speech, as John calls it, a parable. There are three. There's the thief, also called the robber and the stranger. There's the door and the shepherd, same person. And then the third is the sheep themselves. They're also present in this figure of speech. So as we look at this together, we're gonna look at each one of these in turn, asking the questions, who are they and what do they do? And hopefully informing us to be able to understand better and grow in our wisdom as we seek to become more like Jesus and understand who He is. So number one, understand the thief. Who are the thieves in here? Look at verse 1. Truly, truly, I say to you, he who does not enter the sheepfold by the door, but comes in by another way, that man is a thief and a robber. Look at verse 5. A stranger they will not follow, but they will flee from him, for they do not know the voice of strangers. Right? Same person. Verse 8. All who came before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not listen to them. That's how you know it's the same person. Because the thieves and robbers are the same who are calling whom the sheep do not listen to. Jesus says, all who came before me are thieves and robbers. Who are all these who came before me? I don't think what Jesus means to say is that, well, Moses and Abraham and David, all these who came before me were thieves and robbers. I don't think that's what he means to say. Moses and David and Abraham and all the leaders of God, of God's people, were imperfect, but they were still put in place by God. Just like me and Pastor Clare are put as undershepherds over you. We're not perfect. We still strive to be men who are faithful and are dependent on Christ. But in the context of John's Gospel here, this seems to clearly refer to the Jewish leaders in chapter 9. Why? Because the passage immediately follows chapter 9. There's no chapter breaks in the original text, right? So Jesus is coming off this truly, truly, I say to you, right from what the Pharisees who were standing by heard Him. They said, wait a minute, are we also blind? And Jesus judges them. And then He goes into this figure of speech. So it makes sense. It also makes sense if you look at verse 21 in chapter 10. Because the ones that are standing there, once again there's a division. Surprise, surprise, right? There's always a division over what Jesus says. And they say, these are not the words of one who is oppressed by a demon. Can a demon open the eyes of the blind? Which brings us back to chapter 9. So this whole thing is in the context of what has just taken place with the blind man who was healed by Jesus and then excommunicated from the synagogue. So it seems to be clear that Jesus is saying that the thief, the robber, the stranger is the leadership over Israel who have failed to see him for who he is. But all who come before me goes even further back. Yes, it's primarily directed toward the Pharisees and the leadership here, but it also harkens back to passages in the Old Testament. You read through the Old Testament and you see passages in Isaiah and Jeremiah and especially in Ezekiel that deal with the shepherds of Israel. And God condemns them for their faithlessness because they failed to do what was right. The priests, the kings, the leaders, shepherds, failed to do what was right for the people of God. And I'm not going to spend a whole lot of time on it, but I want you to see this. If you can turn in your Bible to Ezekiel 34, We won't read the whole thing, but I would encourage you to go back and read it this afternoon. Ezekiel 34. If you remember Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Solomon, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Daniel, Lamentations, Ezekiel. Okay? Ezekiel 34. And Ezekiel is speaking the Word of the Lord to these people in exile, And He speaks these words. I'm not going to read the whole thing, but stay with me. And think about even keeping the context of Psalm 23 in your mind as you're reading this. Ezekiel 34, 1-6, the word of the Lord came to me, Son of man, prophesy against the shepherds of Israel. Prophesy and say to them, even to the shepherds, thus says the Lord God. Ah, shepherds of Israel, who have been feeding yourselves, should not shepherds feed the sheep? You eat the fat, you clothe yourselves with the wool, you slaughter the fat ones, but you do not feed the sheep. The weak you have not strengthened, the sick you have not healed, the injured you have not bound up, the strayed you have not brought back, the lost you have not sought, and with force and harshness you have ruled them. So they were scattered, because there was no shepherd. and they became food for all the wild beasts. My sheep were scattered. They wandered all over the mountains and on every high hill. My sheep were scattered over all the face of the earth with none to search or seek for them." Skip ahead to verse 11. For thus says the Lord God, behold I, I myself will search for my sheep and will seek them out. As a shepherd seeks out his flock when he is among his sheep that have been scattered, so I will seek out my sheep and I will rescue them from all places where they have been scattered on a day of clouds and thick darkness. And I will bring them out from the peoples and gather them from the countries and will bring them into their own land. and I will feed them on the mountains of Israel by the ravines, and in all the inhabited places of the country, I will feed them with good pasture. And on the mountain heights of Israel shall be their grazing land. There they shall lie down in good grazing land, and on rich pasture they shall feed on the mountains of Israel. I myself will be the shepherd of my sheep, and I myself will make them lie down, declares the Lord God. I will seek the lost. And I will bring back the strayed. And I will bind up the injured. And I will strengthen the weak. And the fat and the strong I will destroy. I will feed them in justice. Skip down to verse 23, look at this. And I will set up over them one shepherd, my servant David, and he shall feed them. He shall feed them and be their shepherd, and I the Lord will be their God, and my servant David shall be prince among them. I am the Lord, I have spoken. We're going to go into more detail into that next week as we talk about Jesus as the Good Shepherd, but let that whet your appetite for what's to come. Because let me tell you, when Ezekiel said that, when the Word of the Lord came to him, David was dead. What in the world does he mean by my servant David? What does he mean by I will be their shepherd, the Lord God? We'll see both of those in one person. But you can see, like their fathers, the Pharisees, the scribes, the Sadducees, and other Jewish leaders, in this time, in the first century, had failed in their duties. Understand this. They don't do what they should. They do not do what they should. What do they do? Verse 10 tells us, right? Verse 10, the thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. What did they do to the blind man that was healed in chapter 9? Did they bind him up or did they cast him out? What did they do to the lame man healed at the pool of Bethesda in chapter 5? Did they say, praise God, you were healed? Or did they say, hey, why are you carrying that bed on the Sabbath? Who did this to you? What will they do when we get to chapter 11 and they find out that Jesus raises Lazarus from the dead? Will they rejoice? The person is here! The one who has conquered death is finally here! Or will they say, let's kill them both? If we think about the Reformation, what was the church doing then? What was Johann Tetzel doing as he was going through the town? What were he and his superiors doing as they were selling indulgences to the people? Were they shepherding the people well then? Or were they stealing and destroying people's souls for money so they could build a church building? Understand what the thief, the robber, and the stranger do. They steal, they kill, they destroy. There is no hope in such men. And yet church, in whom do we put our trust? Who do you put your trust in? Now on a Sunday morning when I'm sitting up here at the pulpit saying to you, you're going to say, Jesus, what happens when you're discussing politics with a friend at work, or a co-worker, or somebody else in your family, or you're on Facebook, or you're on YouTube, or you're in the comment section, or you're doing something, what is your hope then? And what is it that you argue about then? Because when you're in the midst of the week and you're thinking about What is the next hope for our nation or our world or our community here? If a politician comes to mind, if a system of government comes to mind, if an earthly kingdom comes to mind, you're missing it. You're missing it. Understand there is only one in whom we can place our hope. There is only one only one way, through the valley of the shadow of death, to good pasture, to rest, and to joy. And that's the door. Understand the door. Who is he? Well, in this section, Jesus speaks a lot of metaphors that don't all seem to gel. This isn't a typical parable where you can find one-to-one ratios with the characters. Jesus just throws out a lot of metaphors. He's the door and the shepherd, right, at the same time. I'm not sure how all that works, but you don't have to try to piece it together like that. You can just appreciate what Jesus is teaching, that Jesus has these qualities. Essentially, there are two types of people that deal with the sheep. There's the thief, the robber, the stranger, or the hired hand, we'll get into later. They all deal poorly with the sheep. The other person is the door, the shepherd, right? Verse 2, but he who enters by the door is the shepherd of the sheep. See him contrasted with the thieves and robbers who climb by another way. Or verse 7, when Jesus is explaining, so Jesus again said to them, truly, truly, I say to you, I am the door of the sheep. Or in verse 9, He says again, I am the door. If anyone enters by Me, he will be saved and will go in and out and find pasture. The door is the only way for salvation and for good pasture, for rest. And then we'll see next week in verse 11 that Jesus is also the good shepherd. What does he do? What does this door, this shepherd, do? If we look at Israel's history, all throughout, if we look at our own history, our own personal history, we as individual sinners, what do we see? What do we find? Just a lot of unfaithfulness. That's what you see time and time again. We wonder time and time again Israel wondered in so many ways Jesus should look at these stubborn disobedient sheep and cast them out to the wolves That would be right He would be just to do so to excommunicate the whole lot of us all of us Calvary Community Church should be for our sins But Jesus doesn't do that Whereas the unfaithful shepherds don't do what they should, it's almost like Jesus doesn't do what He should either. Because Jesus goes beyond. Jesus gives us grace and mercy and satisfies justice with His own life. Look what He does in verse 3. To him the gatekeeper opens, the sheep hear his voice, and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. He calls his own by name and leads them out. Do you know what ancient sheep herders would do back in this day? Today we use sheep dogs and other means to move sheep around. They didn't do that back then. They didn't use those sheep dogs. They would use their voice. They had a specific call that they would give. and their own sheep would recognize them. That way when sheep traveled together, multiple herds, the shepherd could call out, and only the sheep that were his would come out from the pen or from the fields, and they would know. They would recognize their shepherd's voice and they would follow. But the description here in verse 3 is something even more than that. That's a great image. It's one that Jesus uses, but the description here in verse 3 is something even more intimate. It's not a generic call. It's not a whistle or just Him saying, for My sheep to come out. He knows every individual sheep by name. He calls His own sheep by name. When one is missing, He knows that that one is missing. When one strays, He goes and He finds the one sheep that strays. He is God incarnate. The same Lord God who would rescue His sheep as He promised in Ezekiel 34. That He Himself would go and find the sheep and bring them back. This is what Jesus does for you. Meditate on that church and think about that for just a second. What does it mean for you that the Lord knows all of his sheep by name and calls to them? Look at verse four. When he has brought out all his own, he goes before them, and the sheep follow him, for they know his voice. He leads them out, and then he goes before them. Psalm 23, even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me. Your rod and your staff, they comfort me." He goes before them. He never leaves the sheep. He stays with them. He does not abandon them. He leads and continues to speak to them so that the sheep are never without His presence. Look at verse 10. What does he do? The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life. and have it abundantly. He gives life and life abundantly. It's not enough just to give life, right? He has to go on, as John explains, it is abundant life. My cup runs over. Surely goodness and loving kindness will follow me all the days of my life. Abundant life. This is more than just you praying for something that you want. This is more than just than just hoping that your circumstance will change. This is salvation. This is a home. This is pasture, good pasture, an eternal dwelling place that will never rust or decay. There will be no bursting pipes. There will be no doorframe problems. There will be no broken ovens ever again. Praise God for that. What little things we worry about. You know, our screen door at home, and our back door, it doesn't fit. It's supposed to open and close, like screen doors are supposed to. It doesn't. It's really annoying. Thankfully, that's not the only door in our house. We have two other doors, so we can get in and out of our house. It'd be really inconvenient if it wasn't the only door. But let me tell you, God and salvation is not like that, because there's only one door. It's Jesus. He's the only way to salvation. He is the only one in whom we can trust. He's the only way to God because He is God. So if Jesus is the only way, Why do we keep trying to walk through walls in our life? Why do you and I keep trying to bang our heads against the wall because we think that's the way? It doesn't work. It doesn't work. So how? How do I stop walking through walls then? How do I stop and start following Jesus who's the only way? Well, let me ask you this, and you don't have to answer out loud, but think honestly. What is the one thing that if it were taken from you, you would absolutely despair? What would it be in your life? What if you had no eyesight like the man in John 9? What if your career were taken away? What if your ministry were taken away? What if your family were taken away? What about your health? What if your friends you're taken away? What if your cell phone were taken away? What would you do then? Where is it that you're truly finding satisfaction? take those things, whatever they may be, good gifts, and submit them to Jesus. He's the only way, and we must learn to trust Him, and trust Him first and only. We must learn amid all the noise of political fodder and the noise of everyone who claims to have it all figured out, and you have those voices speaking in your life. I know, I know what's right. No, I know what's right. Well, no, maybe this is the right way. Maybe this is... We must learn to listen to the voice of Jesus. If we are His sheep, and I know you are, so many of you. If we are His sheep, then we know the voice of Jesus, and we can hear it. So church, understand the sheep. Or be an understanding sheep. That's what happens in verse 6. The figure of speech that Jesus uses, they don't understand. You, church, understand what Jesus is saying here. Follow Him. Who are the sheep? Who are they? They're God's people. The people that God has set aside. It's the blind man in chapter 9. It's the disciples that are gathered around Jesus. It's the lame man from chapter 5. It's the Samaritan woman, even though she's not part of Israel. It's the Samaritan woman from chapter 4. It's all these people, and in this context specifically, the Jewish people. But Jesus is going to go on to say, there's going to be one flock. I have other sheep. They're coming. I'm calling them. There's going to be one flock. One shepherd. So that means all the way down to you and me. We are His sheep. We are the sheep of Jesus. And what do they do? Verse 3, the gatekeeper opens, the sheep hear His voice. The sheep hear His voice. They hear Him. They know Him. Verse 4, when He is brought on His own, He goes before them, and the sheep follow Him, for they know His voice. They follow the shepherd, they know His voice. Why do the sheep do this? That's a good question, right? Is it because they're smarter sheep than the other sheep? Is it because they are wiser sheep than the other sheep there? Are they more morally upright before He calls them? Do they come from better families? Of course, none of that is in the text because that's not the answer. They know His voice because they are His sheep. Persevere. Persevere because you know that it is not your responsibility for their response. It is not your responsibility to change their heart. It is your responsibility to give the call. It is your responsibility to persevere because you know that no matter what, no matter what sin is in the way, no matter what hurdle is in the way, God will call his sheep. And you can have confidence when you go and share the gospel that God will do what He wants to do regardless of how gifted you are or how clear you are. Your call is not to be sophisticated, it's to be obedient. You don't even have to be brave, you just have to be obedient. You don't have to have all the answers, you just have to be obedient. What else do the sheep do? Verse 5, A stranger they will not follow, but they will flee from him, for they do not know the voice of strangers. The sheep don't follow the stranger. They flee from him. They don't know His voice. That's what happened in chapter 9, right? The blind man stands before the Jewish leaders and he recognizes that it's Jesus who is from God. He hears the voice of Jesus and sees, literally and figuratively, he sees Jesus, not the Jewish leaders. They're not in the right. He understands, and so he follows. even at the expense of being brought out from the community and cut off. We too, church, must understand what is and what is not the voice of Jesus. Hold fast to the ordinary means of grace. Hold fast to those things, okay? I tell you now, the Lord can speak however He wants. Stop looking for billboards. Stop looking for angel numbers, if any of y'all are into that. Stop trying to follow a formula. If I pray this, if I do this, then I'll get what I want. Hold fast to the ordinary means of grace. Hold fast to what Jesus has left us, has given to us. What do we as Jesus' sheep have? We have the Word of God. You want to hear Jesus' voice? You heard it. You heard it this morning. We read it. I can read it again. The Word of God. This is the voice of God. Read it. I'm not trying to be legalistic. I'm trying to say, I know because you tell me that you're struggling with things in your life. And you wonder. And you go, what do I do? And if you're not reading the Word on a regular basis, then what are you looking for? What are you putting your hope in? Where are you looking for answers? Read the Word of God. Put this in your mind. Put this in your heart. I told the children this morning, as we're thinking about how do we be on our guard and stand firm in the faith, how do we do that? fill up our minds and our hearts with what God's Word says so that when we're in the heat of the moment, when the passions overtake us, when the temptations feel like they're too much, that's what comes to mind. We have prayer as God's sheep. We can talk to God. We can talk to the creator of the universe. We can talk to Jesus himself. We have the Holy Spirit who, when we don't have words because we're so overwhelmed and we're groaning, speaks for us on our behalf. We have prayer, so talk to Him. Spend time with Him. We have the ordinances. We have baptism, and we have the Lord's Supper, which are visual reminders of the gospel. Cherish them. Cherish it next week when we gather together and we take the bread and we take the cup. And you know what they represent. You've heard it so many times in your life. Those of you that have grown up in the church and those of you that have just done it for a while. And understand that we do that not as individuals but as a church. Jesus has left us the church. He has given us the church. We are a part of that. We're not alone. We take communion together. We participate in baptism together. Gather with His people. Why would you shun them? Why, knowing what you know, knowing what Jesus calls us to do for one another? In all of Scripture, look at Matthew 18. Would we say, you know, nah, not gonna gather with his church. We as Jesus' sheep have his Holy Spirit. He abides in us, he guides us. Listen to the voice of God as he uses these things to lead you and me as a shepherd, as he is the only door. to go in and out and find pasture. Here's the imperatives for you and for me. Understand, listen, and follow. When I was 15 years old, Bruce Wilkinson wrote, came out, published the book, The Prayer of Jabez. Some of you who grew up in the church may remember this. I remember at 15 years old being a very zealous young believer who wanted to grow in my faith. And let me tell you, there is absolutely nothing wrong with praying biblical prayers. There's actually everything right with that. And if the prayer of Jabez did anything well, it was that it pointed us to Scripture and said, hey, you should pray prayers that we already have recorded in the Bible. That's good. But where people took it too far, perhaps where Wilkinson should have anticipated, there is wrong in expecting a ritual or tradition or external action divorced from a changed heart to force God's hand to give me stuff that I want. If I just pray this particular formula, then I can have the car or the house that I want. That's how it ended up getting used. What did that reveal about our hearts I know for for many For many and many of my friends thankfully it went to the wayside and we realized after a while This is we should stop this this isn't this isn't good We're treating God like a genie But for many it revealed about it revealed our hearts that we were searching for another door We weren't satisfied with Jesus We weren't satisfied with what He was giving to us. We wanted something else to satisfy our hearts. We were cultivating a ritual instead of cultivating a relationship with Him, with our Shepherd. And so church, let us cultivate a relationship with Jesus. Let us understand who He is. grow in our understanding of who He is. Let us, church, cultivate a relationship with Jesus by listening to His voice. As individuals and together, that's what we're doing right now. We're listening to His voice together. And lastly, and you can take this one as you go from here, follow in obedience. And here's what you'll find. You may not find a new car or a new screen door, but you will find life and life abundantly now and in the eternity to come. Let's pray. that we would seek to know you better. We would seek to minister to one another better. We would seek to take the gospel to the ends of the earth, even just to the end of the driveway. We would seek, Lord, to see you glorified by our actions and in our families and in our homes and in our neighborhoods and our communities as we gather together, as we go from here. I pray, Lord, that you would be gracious to us and be patient as we are stubborn and as we do take a long time to grow sometimes. Continue to extend your grace and mercy and patience to us. And as we sing of your love, your deep, deep love that you have for your people, may our hearts, may our hearts be changed, continue to be reformed. It's in Christ's name we pray, amen.