Welcome to Unveiled Faces, a Redeemer Presbyterian Church podcast. Please enjoy our feature presentation. It is such a pleasure to be back with you today and to see so many friends and meet some new ones. And I just wanna thank you for your encouragement to me. I serve as a missionary pastor to our state capitol full-time for 14 years now, and your church has just been a great encouragement to me in recent years. Your pastor and you as partners in the ministry with me of serving the Lord there, and your prayers, I hear often that you're praying, for me and for my family and for the work there, so thank you. It's my pleasure to be back with you today and just to see you and reconnect with you and to rejoice in the Lord with you and look to God's word with you. And you're all invited if you wanna come see what I'm doing at the Capitol, please come visit. I'll show you around kind of behind the scenes. If you're not already familiar with it there and show you more of what I'm doing, you're welcome to join in in a weekly Bible study that I teach there. I teach Bible study each week for senators and assembly members and statewide leaders. And then another one for staff, lobbyists, state employees, sometimes department heads, others come to those. And then I enjoy speaking in churches and beyond the Capitol somewhat as well. And then it's a lot of personal interaction in the Capitol. As I said, I'm kind of a missionary pastor there, so I'm doing whatever I can, whatever, if you have any suggestions, I'm open to them, whatever I can to reach out to people in the name of Jesus. and help them to come to know him as God provides the opportunity to declare his word, and to share the story of what he's done in my life, and hear about their life, and share the word of God with them, and then to invite them to meet with me regularly, to learn more about the Lord and grow in him, and then to invite them, as I mentioned, to these Bible study groups each week, and help them to get plugged in in a church, in their community, and so on. And I've talked about this before here, and I know a number of you probably have some work in government, maybe even in state government, I know some of you do. That's kind of our backyard, isn't it? We often don't think about our state capital that way, but what an opportunity we have as people who live in the greater Sacramento area, which, when you think about it, is the political and social policy center for the most populous, arguably the most influential state, and the most powerful nation on earth. So it'd be as if we lived in a key region of the Roman Empire in the days when the New Testament was written, and we get to represent Christ there, and we get to be around people who work in that government sphere that really touches the whole nation, but even the world. That's where we live. And so as you pray for what I'm doing there or come and visit or partner with me in that, and then as God uses you and your work with government or your interaction with government or even just in the community, we're touching that region that has a special place in what God is doing in our state, in our nation, in our world. And I'm thankful to be part of that. But as I do that, as I reach out to the Capitol, I hear so many interesting comments from people outside the Capitol when I speak. People say, well, Frank, you're there in the Capitol? What's that like? That's the belly of the beast. Or the heart of darkness. Or you're really in the thick of it, aren't you? And just yesterday I heard another one. Someone said, well, you're there in the devil's playpen. The devil's playpen. I thought, I never heard that one before. And maybe you have another one for me. I get a lot of them, I get a lot of pity actually. But as I go into the Capitol on a regular basis, I just ask the Lord to guide me, to give me his mindset, and to help me to have his perspective on what I'm doing there. And many passages in God's word comfort me on a regular basis as I walk in to the Capitol. And one that has really stood out in my mind for a while now is Philippians chapter two, 14 through 16 that we just read. This passage is filled with so many things that relate to what I'm doing in the capital, but really relate to all of us as people living in this day and age. And I think it's just a nice window into a perspective that God would like us to have to encourage us in a time like this. And so I've titled this, How Can We Shine in a World of Darkness? And there are three points that stand out to me in this passage. One is that we remember where we are, we remember who we are, And then thirdly, we remember what we're doing here. And let me just show you what I mean as we look at Philippians 2, 14 through 16. And I'll be referencing the New King James translation, but I also have a New American Standard Bible here in front of me, so cross-references might be New American Standard translation. But if you'd like to follow along in yours, feel free. But notice in this passage, we remember where we are. It's good to remember where we are. And what I mean by that is where we live, what it's like in our culture today. The Apostle Paul was writing through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit here. And he says in Philippians, to 14 through 16, he says that he'd like these people in Philippi to understand that they are children of God without fault in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation. This is a reference to, well, to the people living at that time that has bearing on the people who live in our time as well. Crooked and perverse. Crooked is a translation of the Greek word scolios, where we get our English medical term scoliosis to describe a curvature of the spine. Perverse could be translated as twisted or distorted from what it should be. So crooked and perverse, bent, twisted, distorted, That describes Paul's generation in the first century. And he was actually likely referencing Deuteronomy 32.5, where many centuries before Jesus, Moses had used similar words to describe the culture of his time. And then similar language was used in the Septuagint translation of Solomon's words, to describe those in his generation. In Proverbs 2, 13 through 15, he described that there are people who leave the paths of uprightness to walk in the ways of darkness, who rejoice in doing evil and delight in the perversity of the wicked, whose ways are crooked, same word in the Septuagint, and who are devious in their paths. So that's how it was in Moses' time, that's how it was in Solomon's time, and it certainly fit for the Apostle Paul's time also. I am fascinated by reading about first century Rome, Paul's time, the Roman Empire, because I'm convinced that we are just becoming more and more like first century Roman Empire. The Roman Empire in the first century was a place of widespread and commonplace immorality, sexual deviancy, oppression, injustice, corruption, and violence. It was immensely polytheistic, with temples to various gods everywhere, and even the Roman emperors, the senior government leaders, right, demanding to be worshiped as gods themselves. And this was pre-Christianity. There was no cultural acceptance of Christianity at this time that Paul was writing Philippians chapter two, none. Christians were a very small group, few in number, and just 10 years earlier, the apostle Paul had been there, had led them to Christ, and had planted this church which is thought to be the very first church in Europe. So these were the first followers of Jesus in all of Europe. And there were few others, even here 10 years later. Christians were a tiny minority group. They were disregarded, rejected, and oppressed. And in the midst of this, Paul wrote this letter to these followers of Jesus in the city of Philippi, which was a key city. Sound familiar? A key city in the Roman Empire, one of the key cities other than Rome. And in fact, Paul was a prisoner of the government under house arrest as he wrote this letter, as he awaited a decision from the corrupt judges and perhaps even the psychotic ruler Nero himself. And No one can overstate, I think, how deranged Nero was, the senior government leader. If you haven't read history about him, I would caution you, maybe this is something I should say is only for adults only, but you might want to read the historian, Suetonius, who wrote in the first century as a Jewish historian about, or excuse me, a Roman historian about the Roman emperors. And he wrote a book called The Twelve Caesars that you can read today. and he wrote about 12 of the Roman emperors, including Nero. It might be interesting to read the chapter on Nero, and you can even just skip ahead through a lot of the boring parts to get to what was he like personally, and what were the concerns people had about him, and you'll say, thank you, Lord, for our government leaders, when you hear how bad Nero was, how bad it can get. So we are not experiencing, thankfully, what the people had to live through if they were following Jesus in first century Roman Empire. We have it really good in comparison, I'd say. But I do think that increasingly what Paul's describing here describes our generation too. we live in an increasingly post-Christian world. So Paul's writing to a group of people who were pre-Christian, who were a minority group that almost nobody understood what they were doing in following Jesus, and now we live in a world that is increasingly going back to a similar mindset, as was common in that day, to where we're becoming more of a minority group here in California, and most people, it seems, don't really understand what we're doing in following Jesus. That's what I encounter at the Capitol. And it seems to me that our day and age sounds more like Judges 21, 25 every day, where it says that everyone did what was right in his own eyes. And I find, when I'm in the Capitol, that as I wanna speak to people about God, that I need to first define which God I mean. They don't have a biblical concept of God in many cases. And maybe they have no concept of God. And this is California culture. Capital draws people from all over our state of 40 million people, one ninth of the US population. And most of them have very little understanding of the God of the Bible. And that's a change in our culture, right? We don't have to go back too far back to where you say, wow, it seemed like people understood the Bible a lot more, right? And even our cities throughout California have names that reference God. Los Angeles, right? City of the Angels, Los Angeles. San Francisco, named after St. Francis. Sacramento, City of the Sacrament. The cities wouldn't be named those things anymore, would they? And so when I enter the Capitol, I'm aware that I'm entering an ungodly environment, and it's not uncommon at all for staff members to come out in the hallway and say, pray for us, please. I've had multiple staff members at a time come out, please pray, we're dying in here. because we feel that there's such oppression here spiritually as we try to follow the Lord in this environment. By the way, people in both parties have had this often with and with state senators, state assembly members. This is not uncommon, that if those people are trying to follow the Lord, they feel like it's a challenge. But what I keep in mind is we're not unusual, we're just, experiencing a little bit more of what people in pre-Christian times experienced, including all the original recipients of the New Testament. And they were honoring the Lord and following Him well in their culture. What examples they are for us. And again, they would say, you all have it pretty good. Don't be too stressed out. You have it really good. As someone has put it, there are no new sins. The old sins are just getting more publicity now again. That's the truth. So we remember where we are. We are people who are following the Lord, seeking to follow him in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation. And that's not to disparage people. That's just that people don't know the Lord. They're not trying to follow the Lord. And so from God's perspective, God says they're missing out on what he knows is the life he wants us to have. So we remember where we are. We also remember, though, who we are, right? And this is a wonderful joy for us, that this passage says we are, who, who are we? We are children of God. What an honor, because not everyone is a child of God, of course. And I say of course, but most people wouldn't even know that. Only those who have been born again into God's family, were adopted into his family, as we could say also, are his children, right? John 1, 12. But as many as received him, to them he gave the right to become, what? Children of God, to those who believe in his name. So through the grace of our God and our Lord Jesus Christ, we can say God is our Father. And not everybody can say that. And we can also say he's our king. So our father is the king of the universe. What a great position we're in. Not through anything we deserve, not because we're better than others or smarter than others, figured something out that they haven't figured out or just decided to be nicer people. No, this is the grace and mercy of our king, that he's invited us to be part of his government and to know him, and then even adopted into his family, and in a sense, be part of his household, household of faith, with the king of the universe. And these are government terms, that he's king, that he's Lord. All throughout scripture, Lord Kurios was a term reserved for the emperor. Christians were dragged before the authorities and pulled into a room and said, all you have to do is bow down now, take this little incense stick and light some incense or light a candle. And as you do say, Caesar is Lord. And if you do, you're free. And some did it. But many followers of Jesus said, I will never say anyone is my Lord, except for Jesus. And they were persecuted greatly in many cases for that. They were acknowledging we have one Lord and that is Jesus. He's our leader, not the emperor. He's the higher leader than the emperor. And so we trust in him alone and want to please him alone above all. And I remember this as I walk into the Capitol and it's so helpful for me and I think it's helpful for all of us today to think about God's kingdom in terms of levels of government. that as we have an election coming up real soon here, we're hearing more about politics and then really it's gonna keep ramping up for two years as we head to a presidential election. There's gonna be more and more talk about how if we do this or that politically, it's gonna be such a good thing for the country. And there's gonna be more emphasis on that. And I just keep in mind levels of government that we get to know the highest king and be part of his family. That's the privilege we all have. Thank you, Lord. And then we know beneath that, God has ordained human government. Romans 13 and other passages talk about how government leaders are servants of God. How could that be? Some of them are just really bad servants, right? But they're accountable to God. And we have the highest king, and then he has ordained human government, which in our case is federal government, then state government, county government, city government. And we have these layers of these government. We keep appointing or electing people who don't have a knowledge of God, so they don't know about the highest government. And that's what I'm doing when I'm there. And I go into the Capitol with that mindset that they're all in government, and they think, who are you, Frank? But they don't understand that I actually am a representative of the highest government coming in, giving them an opportunity to know and serve the highest government, which is holding them accountable. In Philippians 3.20, in this same letter, the Apostle Paul shows that he has this perspective. As they're experiencing persecution from the government, he says, our citizenship is in heaven, from which we eagerly await a Savior, the Lord, there's that word, kurios, Jesus Christ. He says, our citizenship, that's a government term, right, is heavenly, and we have our Lord, not Caesar, but Jesus. And so as children of God, we know where we live, we know who we are, that we're in this difficult place, but we're his children. And it says here that because of that, we also speak differently than other people. Notice he says, do all things without grumbling or disputing. No grumbling, no disputing, or it could be translated complaining and arguing. He's talking about in a church, there was infighting, there were factions. Have you ever heard of a church having any kind of conflict as they debated what to do in response to the government and how they should operate? Yeah, I mean, that's been the norm for a couple years here, right, the last few years. So a lot of churches split over discussions about social policy or about government influence. It's happened to so many. And then, isn't this what social media's about? Complaining and arguing? Isn't this what the news media's about? Complaining and arguing? Some of us are like the person who prayed this prayer that I heard. Goes like this, here's the prayer. Dear God, so far today, Lord, I've done all right. I haven't gossiped. I haven't even lost my temper. I haven't been greedy, grumpy, nasty, or selfish. I'm very thankful for that. But in a few minutes, God, I'm going to get out of bed. And from then on, I'm probably gonna need a lot more help, amen. You ever feel like that? I can relate to that prayer. I have to be very careful about how I look at the world around me, because I can just get grumpy about it. Complaining and arguing, and churches can become places just of complaining and arguing. This is the world we live in, but with God's help, we can be different than the world around us. There's a lot to complain and disagree about, but when we have our focus on Jesus, right, on the Lord, we can get closer to each other as we are all looking to him. We just get together closer to each other, care for one another, love one another, regardless of our differences. And I love to see how Jesus called people from all different backgrounds and perspectives to follow him in his day, including people from different government perspectives. It's a beautiful insight that helps me as I go into the Capitol and I reach out to Republicans and Democrats, people who are on the far right, people who are on the far left, and people who are moderate, and they're all fighting and competing, and many of them are backstabbing each other in the back, and I come in and just say, can't we all just unite together in the name of Jesus, right? That's a tough sell in the Capitol. But I think about how Jesus called different kinds of people to be with him, men and women, which was a big deal in his culture. And then tax collectors for the government, and then zealots who were the revolutionary fighters against the government, who the government considered terrorists. Men, women, tax collectors, zealots. He called Pharisees and Sadducees together to follow him, who were like political parties. And Samaritans, they were like another one. And then people like prostitutes, sinners. And he brought them all together. He said, come follow me. Now, I have no doubt that among those people, as they started getting interested in him, that there were many who were looking around saying, what in the world are they doing here? How can they be here following you? And people ask me, do you get pushback in the Capitol for what you do, Frank? I do, but sometimes it's not who you would expect. Some of the pushback is because people say, why are you, Frank, associating with those people? Or why would those people be allowed to come to our discussion about Jesus, right? There are people who have a hard time with it. We're all gonna be together here, even those people. But I keep in mind, that's what Jesus modeled, right? That he wants us to reach out in his name to all. And we're not here to dispute, we're here to draw people. And so the legislator's Bible discussions are both parties. Many ethnicities. We have people from the inner city. We have people from up on the foothills or the mountains who are cowboys and cowgirls. We got people on the far right, people on the far left, I think maybe. We have people of all kinds and they come into the room. Sometimes I see them trembling because they've never entered a room like this before. And I get to proclaim about Jesus. and teach passage by passage through his word and watch the spirit of God work. And I'm often amazed at how God is calling even that one, right? Because God is reaching out to all and he is extending the offer of salvation to all who will come. And so we speak differently, we realize God is up to something bigger than us. And we also live differently. It says in verse 15 that you may be blameless and innocent, children of God, how? Without blemish. So this could be translated as without fault. Blameless, without fault, or harmless, innocent. It's a word that means unmixed, pure. It was used for pure wine or metal that's unalloyed. It refers then to someone who's not tainted by sinful motives or ambitions, that's pure, that's unmingled, innocent, sincere. Reminds me of what Paul wrote in Romans 16, 19. He says, I want you to be wise in what is good and innocent in what is evil. And then Jesus saying, I'm sending you out as sheep in the midst of wolves. So be wary of serpents and innocent as doves. So God's word is telling us here in verse 15, Philippians 2.15, that we're to be blameless and innocent, children of God without blemish. And this is only something he can do in us and through us, but he will as we trust in him. We remember where we are, we remember who we are, and then we remember thirdly, what we're doing here. Lord, why are we in this world? Why are we in this place? And have you ever heard people say like, oh, it's so hard today, what's going on in our world? Oh, we live in such a difficult time. And it is in some ways getting harder, but in other ways, it's an exciting opportunity for us. Because as our world becomes more like the world of the Apostle Paul and the Philippian believers, we get like them to live the mission for the Lord that is a wonderful mission. He says in verse 16, Philippians 2, 16, holding fast the word of life. That's something we're to do here. in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, as children of God, we hold fast the word of life. And I like this phrase here. The word in the Greek language that was originally written is apeko, holding fast. This word can mean holding tightly to something, and it also means, though, holding something out to someone. And it's a fun thing to read commentaries on this verse because you'll read a commentary and it'll say, well, obviously this means to hold tightly to in the context. And then I can read another commentary that's equally respected by a biblical scholar who says, well, obviously this means to hold something forth and should be translated holding it out. And as you look at various Bible translations, they go back and forth. Some say holding out, some say holding fast or tightly to. The word can mean either. Why is it so ambiguous? Why is it left ambiguous? I think perhaps the Lord wants it to be clear that it means both. We're holding tightly to the word of life, and what is the word of life? This is God's word, and we're also, as we hold to it, we're holding it out to a world that needs it. This is what I hold on to. Would you like it too? And the word of life, of course, refers to the good news of Jesus and the entire written word of God, the Bible. This is God's word and it gives life. Deuteronomy 8.3, man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of the Lord. And John 6.63, Jesus said, the words that I speak to you are spirit and they are life. And Jesus himself is the embodied word of life. John 1.1, that which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we've seen with our eyes, which we've looked upon, our hands have handled concerning the word of life. The life was manifested and we've seen and bear witness. So this is our mission to hold onto the good news of Jesus Christ, the word of God, Christ himself. But it's not just for us. We hold fast to it, but it's also rightly translated that we're holding it forth to a world that needs it. One of my great joys in the Capitol is to offer Bibles to people. Fascinating to watch what happens when you just go around offering Bibles. I mean, just that would be a, a great hidden camera show to watch the reactions you get, right? The people who you think would say, oh, yes, I would love to have a Bible, or, you know, oh, these people need Bible. Some of them have no interest. No interest. One man who was a devoted follower of Christ, I would have thought, says, oh, I don't need a Bible. He says, in fact, I don't even, he says, I don't need to read the Bible anymore. I've already read it once. And he was kind of proud of that. I've read the whole thing. I don't need to hear it anymore. Another one said, you know, all I read is bills all day. I read, read, read, legislative bills all day. The last thing I want to do is read something else. So if you could just give me a verse once a week, that would be more than enough. And she was a Christian, you would have thought. And of course, many just say, no, no, no, we don't want that thing. A lot of rejection of the Bible. Then I'll go into an office where you would think, well, this one's a lost case. There's no way they're going to want a Bible. Thank you so much. Would you please explain it to us? Would you show us what's in the Bible? Would you sit down? I'm not exaggerating. Our conversations, as I explain the scriptures and the gospel, and people are hugging me and thanking me, staff members coming around, can I have one too? And I walk out of the hall afterwards and chills are going up my back and I say, Lord, who would ever believe it? but I have to keep things confidential. I can't say that, or it might be in the paper the next day. Senator so-and-so, the staff are into the Bible, and there goes their next campaign maybe. One legislator was going to U.S. Congress. She stopped me in the hall, said, I'm leaving to go to Congress, but I just wanna thank you for being here. You wouldn't have known that I was interested in what you're doing, but I've been watching you for years, and nobody knows this, but I read the Bible every morning too. but don't tell anybody because it wouldn't look good in my district. Who knows what God might be doing as we present the word of life to people and as we reach out to them and help them to understand it. So we offer it to people. We embody it as we follow him and people get to see what he's doing in our life. And so it's good to be involved in other things. It's good to be involved in caring for people, in social action, in politics. Sometimes people think, well, Frank, you must think it's not important to be involved in politics. Like the church should stay out of politics. Well, everybody I minister to is making a life career out of politics. So no, I'm not saying God's people should stay out of politics. We should be involved. I hope you're gonna vote in the selection that's coming up. If you're not registered to vote, please register. And let's let our voice be heard. We're honored, blessed to be living in a country that is saying we want to know what you want, right? At least theoretically. You have an opportunity to tell us what you want. So we should be getting involved. That's a rare opportunity historically. But above all, we have a higher mission, don't we? We are ambassadors, there's the government term, of the highest government. So Paul writes in Ephesians 6.19, pray on my behalf that speech may be given to me in the opening of my mouth to make known with boldness the mystery of the gospel for which I am an ambassador in chains. that in proclaiming it, I may speak boldly as I ought to speak. Ambassador is a government term. Every country has an embassy. The United States, we have embassies all over the world that represent our country and our government influence there. Paul says, I'm an ambassador, a government leader representing the highest government leader. That's how he saw himself as he wandered around this place that was so anti-Christ, he's confident that he's representing the highest government as an ambassador. And he says in 2 Corinthians 5.20, therefore we are ambassadors for Christ. As though God were making an appeal for us, we beg you, through us I should say, we beg you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. That's what we do in the world. We say to people, do you know the highest king? And so I hear Christians say, I'm fighting a culture war. And I think that's interesting. I'm not fighting a war with anyone. I'm not at war with culture. I'm concerned about culture. I'm not happy with what's going on culturally, but I'm an ambassador of a culture that's fine here to rescue people out of this. I'm on a rescue mission. I'm not on a war path. And so we have this, this phrase here in this passage where he says, among whom you shine as lights in the world. Notice he's saying you're like rescuers, I might say, with flashlights here to help people to come out of the darkness, to come out of the place that they're in that is so dangerous, to show them the way of escape. That's what we're doing, we're bringing the good news of Jesus and the word of God to people with darkened hearts in a lost world. And as we do that, again, it's interesting to watch what happens. That we shine the light of Christ and we see people as the spirit of God uses the word of God to stir their heart, they say, I do want that. and we get to watch lives be transformed. He says you shine as lights in the world. That's our place. Lights is phosteris, luminaries, stars, used for the sun. And we read, of course, that Jesus is the light, and him was life, and the life was the light of men, John 1, 4. And John 8, 12, Jesus said, I am the light of the world. He who follows me will not walk in darkness, but have the light of life. But when we open our hearts to the Lord, And Christ comes in, then the Spirit of God comes in, it's like His light comes on within. And 2 Corinthians 4, 6 says, for God who said, light shall shine in the darkness, is the one who is shown in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ. And Colossians 1, 13, it says, for He has rescued us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom, there's a government term, of His beloved Son. And then He says, Matthew 5, you're the light of the world now. Let your light shine before men in such a way that they'll see your good works and they'll glorify your Father in heaven. At 1 Peter 2.9, you're a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for His own possession. Those government terms, you're a nation, that you may what? Proclaim His excellencies. Of Him, there's a government term. Excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. In Daniel 12 three, those who are wise shall shine like the brightness of the firmament and those who turn many to righteousness like the stars forever and ever. And Jesus quoted that passage. So notice we're rescue lights for this world. We're not laser beams zapping all the sinners. That's not the kind of light we are. to destroy them, were to help rescue people. An early church leader named Origen, second century, said, the communities of God, talking about the churches, to which Christ has become teacher and guide, are in comparison with communities of the pagan people among whom they live as strangers, like heavenly lights in the world. William Booth, the founder of the Salvation Army said, God has sent you into this dark valley for nothing less than to raise these doomstruck creatures from the dead. That is your mission. To stop short of this will be disastrous and everlasting calamity. Well, only God can raise people from the dead, but we dare not stop short. of shining his light. And Vance Havner, a pastor, said, we are not going to move this world, I love this quote, we're not gonna move this world by criticism of it, grumbling, complaining, nor by conformity to it, but by the combustion within it of lives ignited by the Spirit of God. And so for this reason, we don't want to isolate ourselves. We want to get around unbelievers. We're not embarrassed to let people know that we aim to glorify God. As someone has said, instead of cursing the darkness, we turn on the light. And this was Paul's approach. In Philippians here, he said in verse 13 of chapter one, my imprisonment in the cause of Christ has become well known throughout the praetorian guard and to everyone else. You know what he's saying there? He's saying equivalent today would be, I'm in prison by the government and even the secret service agents are hearing about Jesus. He was so excited to be preaching to the secret service agents who are at the Capitol. They're called sergeants at arms in his case. the praetorian guard or the palace guard. And then in Philippians 4.22, he concludes his letter here to them by saying, all the saints greet you, get this, especially those of Caesar's household. They must have been like, what? Caesar's household? What he's saying is, We're ambassadors here in this dark place. Caesar, who thinks he's Lord, and I'm declaring the one true Lord, even his family, his servants, the people who work with the emperor, who live with the emperor, are hearing about Jesus and are responding. Bam! He was so excited to share that. And he goes on to say, if they catch this vision, then his ministry won't be a waste. He says so that it won't be in vain. This would be proof of their salvation and evidence of their sanctification. And so in conclusion, you know, people say to me often, Frank, there's so much darkness in the world. How can I make any difference? What can we do? And I think sometimes back about how when my, Wife and I were dating. We met at church in a youth group in a church. And this youth group went on a backpacking trip to Mount Whitney. It was a week-long trip coming up the backside. And we went all the way up there to the top of Mount Whitney, highest point in the continental United States, 14,000, anybody know exactly? 14,000-something feet. And we're camped out up there near the top of Mount Whitney, not at the very top, somewhere not too far down from the top. And it was August when there's a meteor shower that's huge. Some of you know about these things, meteors. But we were way high above any lights, any man-made light. It was a clear August night during this meteor shower. I laid in my sleeping bag that night, no tent, just laid out under the stars with this youth group I was with. Everybody's asleep, I couldn't sleep. because there was a show going on in the sky. I didn't know there were that many stars. I grew up in Los Angeles. As a kid in Los Angeles, people talk about the stars. I'd go out and say, well, there's the star. It's not so impressive. And that's no exaggeration, right, if you have lived there. I mean, it's a star. If you're lucky, you might see two. Here I was looking at a billion. There was more white than black in the sky, I think. And I was in awe, and I was saying, Lord, I didn't know those are up there. I had no idea that they're always there. Why can't we see them? Because there's just so much light where I was living in Southern California at the time. There's just so much light that I never could see the stars at night. Here I was, away from all the city lights, up high, billions of them. Well, now people say, it's getting so dark. What's that mean? It means your little light, the light of Christ in you that you think is little, is not so little. It shows up even more. You stand out even more. People see God at work in you even more. And so rather than us lamenting this, we can rejoice in this opportunity that we have to shine brighter for him. This has been a presentation of Redeemer Presbyterian Church. For more resources and information, please stop by our website at visitredeemer.org. All material herewithin, unless otherwise noted. Copyright Redeemer Presbyterian Church. Elk Grove, California. Music furnished by Nathan Clark George. Available at nathanclarkgeorge.com.