Alright, welcome back to our lessons on being human. I didn't exactly plan it out this way, but it actually looks like we're going to wrap up this series right at the end of this calendar year, which feels very satisfying to me, but didn't actually plan it out that way. So we are still looking at the The state of grace here as we're working our way through the four states of humanity, as we think about life in Christ, right? We've been talking about union with Christ, how we are now dead to sin, the wonderful work that God does for us in empowering us by his spirit to serve him. And so today I want to look at the Great Commission together as we think about what we're supposed to be doing here on this earth. So if you turn to Matthew chapter 28, Matthew 28, we're going to read the last few verses of The book of Matthew, I'll read verses 16 through 20. We'll be focused on verses 18 to 20. I want to spend some time this afternoon thinking what you should be doing with your life. What should you be doing with your time as a human being on this earth? Why has God put you here? Or maybe why has God left you here? Why is he not taking you to be with him in heaven? What purpose does he have for his people on this earth? And how does that relate to what we've already been studying? We looked before creation at those creation ordinances, the creation mandate, the idea that we're supposed to be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth, subdue it. We talked about marriage and childbearing and work and Sabbath, all those kinds of daily work kinds of things that we said are what we're created to do. But then we had the problem with the fall and God's given this grace and salvation. And so does the creation mandate still apply to us today? Is that what we should still be spending our time doing, or is there something else that we're supposed to be doing? The Great Commission is probably familiar to you, and it's not called that in Scripture, but it is an important commission from Jesus to his disciples, to us, and what we're supposed to be doing with our time here on this earth. But the question is, does that replace the creation mandate, the creation ordinances? Is this all we're supposed to be focused on is what he says here in the Great Commission? Or should we be more focused? Is this really that important? Should we be more focused on creation ordinances? Or is there sort of a combination of the two? Or is there a relationship between the two? And hopefully you'll see today there is a relationship between the original mandate to humanity and then the Great Commission here. This is a practical thing. This has implications for what kinds of jobs you take, how you advise your kids or grandkids or nieces and nephews on what to do with their lives, how you spend your time every week. We need to think carefully about what we're here for. God has not left us to figure that out by ourselves. He's given us some clear instructions. So I'm gonna read this here, the Great Commission, Matthew 28, 16 through 20, and then I'll give you an outline of what we're gonna be trying to do today. This is God's word. Now the 11 disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them. And when they saw him, they worshiped him, but some doubted. And Jesus came and said to them, all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always to the end of the age. All right, we're gonna just work our way through this, worked out really nicely with some alliteration today. So we're gonna see that this is a Royal Commission, it's a Reconciliation Commission, and it's a Restricted Commission. So we're gonna work through those three things, and then we'll try to do some application here. So we'll have plenty of passages to look up, so get ready if you want to read some scripture here. Looking first of all, we see that this is a Royal Commission. Jesus says, all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. What does that mean? What kind of authority is he talking about here? All authority has been given to me. He is God, okay? So did he already have that authority? There you go. Yep. So there's some sense in which Jesus has been given this authority in a new way. So there's a moment in time where Jesus has received this authority. What authority is included in this? What kinds of authority? Authority over the church. Okay, I think everybody can agree on that. Authority over the church. Christ is king of the church. What else? Overall creation. He's been given authority to judge the world. The Father's given authority to judge the world. What other kinds of authority is there? What kinds of authority are there in this world? Nations, right? Families. Employers, in a sense, we could get into that. All authorities in heaven on earth are under the kingship of Jesus Christ. That's where he starts with the Great Commission. That's something we need to not gloss over that. I think sometimes we want to get to what we're supposed to do, right? So we skip the first phrase. But we need to get this as our foundation. Jesus is king of everything. He's over all authorities on this earth. Could someone look up Psalm 2, 7 through 9? Simeon, Psalms, or actually, hang on, I've got the wrong reference. Psalm 2, 7-12, actually. Psalm 2, 7-12. Someone else, Ephesians 1, 20-23. Otto, Ephesians 1, 20-23. Susan, can you do 1 Corinthians 15, 24, and 25? 1 Corinthians 15, 24, and 25. And then Ephesians 1, 7-10. Ephesians 1, 7-10. Lisa, Ephesians 1, 7-10. 2 Corinthians 5, 17-21. Don, 2 Corinthians 5, 17-21. Acts 17, 30 and 31. Sam, you got that one. Acts 17, no, what did I say? Yes. Acts 17, 30 and 31. 2 Peter 3, 8 and 9. Bill, you got that one? 2 Peter 3, 8 and 9. We'll pause there. Okay. Psalm 2, 7-9. This is in the Old Testament. I think you'll hear how it's prophetic of Christ. And keep, keep going through verse 12. He was out there. Instructed me to serve the Lord in fear. Okay, what is being given to the king as a heritage here? Not sure if it says heritage in your version or not. What is given to the son of David as his heritage? The heathens. If King James says heathen, other versions would say nations, right? The nations. Not just Israel. All the nations are given to the king, to the son of David, as a human king. over all of this creation. Jesus is the son of David. He's the king of all of these nations. And this is, of course, at the basis of our belief that all civil governments should recognize Christ as king, lest they face his wrath, because he has been appointed king of this earth. But that's what he's talking about here in Romans, excuse me, Matthew 28. Okay, Ephesians 1, 20 to 23. It's in the middle of a sentence here. It's one of those long sentences. You gotta start somewhere. So Ephesians 1, 20 to 23. seated him at his right hand in heaven's places, far above all rule and authority, and power and dominion, and above every name that is named, not only in this age, but also in the ones to come. And he put all things under his feet, and gave him his head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fullness of which fulfills all in all. Okay, we can't get into everything in this verse, but he is the head over all things for the church, But it's all authority, again, above all rule and authority and power and dominion, not only in this age, but also in the one to come. So if there's any doubt that Christ is over all authorities, even in this age, it's clearly lined out there in Ephesians chapter 1. This is the basis of the Great Commission. Jesus is the King. He's the King of every nation. Every nation owes allegiance to Him. And that's a process. And when we see this, he is king now, but we don't see all things in subjection to him yet. And so we see this in 1 Corinthians 15, 24, and 25. Then comes the end when he delivered kingdom to God the Father after destroying every rule and every authority and power. For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. Okay, so he is reigning, he is king of this whole earth, but we don't yet see everything in subjection to him. We don't see all peoples under his authority, and he's reigning until that happens, until he brings all those things under his authority. So way back when we started with creation, we were looking at Adam and Eve. What job were they given? Talked about it a moment ago, but what job were they given? Sorry, say it again. Dominion over the creation, right? Subdue the earth, fill it. Adam and Eve were pronounced king and queen of this creation. They were made to rule this creation and they were made to care for it and to be king and queen, to work at the ground and to subdue it for God's glory. But the ultimate goal of worship, the goal is you work and then there's a day set aside for worship, the Sabbath, so they can be actively glorifying the Lord in direct praise on that day of worship, spending time resting and spending that time dedicated to Him. Their job was to rule over the world for God's glory, to bring about more glory to God through ruling and subduing this creation and causing it to be fruitful and being fruitful themselves. The creation is made to have a human ruler that is causing the creation to bring glory to God, that is ruling over this creation in such a way that more glory is given to God. That's the goal of that kingship. We know that Jesus is king as God, right? He has always been king. The Son of God, the second person of the Trinity, has always been king. We call that his essential kingship. And it wasn't just that the Father was king. All three, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, have had that essential kingship over everything that is. But we see this idea that at a certain point, Jesus, the God-man, was given all authority in heaven and on earth. He was given what we call this mediatorial kingship, where he is now the son of David, the human and divine king of this whole creation over all nations. And he is carrying out that rule then through his people. So really this creation mandate to fill the earth, to have dominion over it, to subdue it, is being carried out by King Jesus. It's being carried out by this human and divine, but human king, who is ruling over this whole creation, has sent out his people to do his work in bringing this creation to bring more glory to God, right? As Adam and Eve were originally created to do. We see this idea that he's the one over all creation to, you know, to bring about this uniting of all creation in Ephesians one, seven through 10. Being, knowing God, straightened out his will, according to his purpose, he set forth in Christ, As a plan for the whole system, we united all any sentient beings from heaven and from earth. unity, right, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth. He's the ruler of creation to bring it together for the glory of God, to bring it together into peace in a way that brings, that makes it serve its original purpose. And so our job then is to carry out the work of the King, right? Our job is to, in the specific circumstances where God has placed us, to work out this Great commission that is related to the creation mandate in service to that King to bring about peace, to bring about this uniting of all things. And now because of sin, because of the fall and the need for redemption, carrying out that ruling and subduing looks a little different than it did for Adam and Eve before the fall. There's a specific kind of work that we have to be doing. There's a rift now and that needs uniting. So that's where we see next that this is a reconciliation commission. What are we commanded to do? So after he says all authority has been given to him, what are we commanded to do? Right, going out into the world, make disciples. And I don't know if you've had this pointed out to you before, in the Greek, the go is not a command, it's a participle. It's the make disciples that's the command. So it's as you go, or going, make disciples. So the command emphasis is on make disciples here. Going into the whole world, make disciples. He doesn't say go and subjugate them by force. He doesn't say go and take the sword and force conversions. He doesn't say, you know, hold a gun to somebody's head and say convert or die. That's not the ministry that he's given to us. Even as the king, who is a ruler over all things and has the right to execute judgment on the rebels against him, he does not give us that kind of ministry. He gives us a different kind of ministry. So 2 Corinthians 5, 17 to 21. Who has that one? Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. Old things have passed away. Behold, all things have become news. Now all things are of God, who has reconciled us to himself through Christ Jesus, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation. That is, that God was, in Christ, reconciling the world to himself. not imputing their trespasses to them, and has committed to us the word of reconciliation. Through 21, just two more verses. Now then, we are ambassadors of Christ. As though God were leading through us, we implore you on Christ's behalf, be reconciled to God, for he made him who knew no sin, to be sin for us, that we might become the righteous of God in Him. We've been given the ministry of reconciliation. And I love that after Paul says that, he does it, right? He says, we implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. That's what we're saying to a lost world. We're saying, we implore you on behalf of Christ, as ambassadors of Jesus, right? We're going out as his envoys, we're his ambassadors going out into this world to all nations saying, we implore you, be reconciled to Christ. Because there is a judgment coming later. We're not the ones who come in judgment, but there is a judgment coming later. Acts 17, 30 to 31. is given assurance to all offenders by raising a little. God is commanding all people everywhere to repent because, why? There's a judgment coming. The judgment isn't coming yet. The king is not coming in judgment yet, but for now, he sent us out into the world to warn people and to call people to repentance, to baptize them, to have them baptized. That's like we talked about uniting yourself with Christ and his death and his resurrection. It's washing your sins away, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. This is a warning. This is a merciful warning from the King before he comes in judgment. He's sending his envoys out into the world to unite the world to him, to be reconciled to him, so that many people around the world from all nations and languages and tribes will come to saving faith in Jesus Christ and be at peace with him, right? To make peace with the King while there's still time. And that's really our job as we're being sent as ambassadors, to make this appeal to people, to be reconciled to God. 2 Peter 3, 8 and 9. So why is the Lord, why is Jesus not returned yet? Why is he being patient? He wants people to come to repentance, right? He's giving time for the elect to be brought in. He's giving time for sinners like you and me to be saved. And some of you can think about if Christ had returned in X year. You would not have known him, right? It would not have been good news for you. But he was patient and he waited so that you might come to saving faith in Jesus Christ. That's the idea here is that there's a patience, there's a waiting. He's sending us out to give people a warning. Our job in the Great Commission is a specific task from the King as a particular way to subdue and unite the world that he is already ruling over, and that we're ruling over under his authority. We are going out to do this job that is a job from the king, but it's not the judgment that he's going to bring later. You can think in 2 Corinthians 10, where it talks about how our arguments, or it says, the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but have divine power to destroy strongholds. We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ, being ready to punish every disobedience when your obedience is complete. 2 Corinthians 10, three through six. The idea is we are going out as... soldiers of Christ, right? But the weapons of our warfare at this time are words, right? We go out and we convince people, right? We bring people the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ, and we appeal to people's consciences, as Paul did, and we work with people speaking, and we don't come at with force, right? The civil government bears a sword in its proper place. We aren't doing that as the church, right? We're going out and we are bringing about this reconciliation through preaching. Now, there is a coming judgment, and I won't read it all here, but if you go to Revelation 19, starting in verse 11, there's a depiction of when Christ comes as the rider on the white horse. and he has a robe dipped in blood, and he comes at the head of an army, and the nations gather to fight against him, and they are completely conquered, and the beast was captured, and with it the false prophet, and they're thrown into the lake of fire, right? That's that moment when Jesus comes as the king in force, right? The king at the head of his army. But for now, that's not how he's sending us out. He does partial judgments in his own providence at times throughout history, but that final judgment, that bringing of the sword, is what Christ will do at the end. So that means that in the time that we have on this earth, in addition to carrying out the creation mandate, being fruitful, multiplying, fill the earth, you know, marriage, childbearing, work, and Sabbath, we're also seeking to bring about this reconciliation. That should be in our minds. We should be thinking about how am I trying to bring about God being reconciled or people being reconciled to God in the circumstances that he's put me in. Because there is a limit here. We've been talking about this already, but it's a restricted commission. Probably would have been better to say temporary, but R was working out nicely in the outline today. So a temporary commission or a restricted commission. At the end here, it says, and behold, I am with you always. to the end of the age. When it says always there, I'm not sure why, but all major English translations just say always, but the Greek says all of the days. I'll be with you all of the days to the end of the age. There's a specific number of days. that has been ticking down ever since Jesus said this. He said, all of the days, and a bunch of them have passed. And we don't know how many more there are, but he says, all of the days, I will be with you. There is an end of the age coming. It's not going to, this world is not always going to continue. In Philippians 2, 10, it talks about, so that at the name of Jesus, every knee should bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. That's going to happen whether it's done willingly or not at the final judgment, that every knee will bow to Jesus. Every tongue will confess that Jesus is Lord. And our job for now, with compassion and love for our neighbors, is to call them to do it joyfully and willingly. Because the day is coming when they will all do that, regardless of whether they want to. Then thinking about As we think a little bit about the priority, I think knowing that this world is not going to continue the way that it is helps us think about our priorities in this creation mandate and Great Commission combination. So could someone read 2 Peter 3, 10 through 13? 2 Peter 3, 10 through 13. Bill, you got that one? 2 Peter 3, 10 through 13. And then 1 Timothy 4, 7 and 8. 1 Timothy 4, 7, and 8. Kim, you got that one? 1 Timothy 4, 7, and 8. Okay, 2 Peter 3, this is just after it talked about God's slowness to, not slowness, that's not slowness, but his patience and waiting for people to repent. Then he says this, starting, 2 Peter 3, starting at verse 10. be exposed. Since all these things are thus to be dissolved, what sort of people ought you to be in lives of holiness and godliness, waiting for an hastening and coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be set on fire and dissolved, and the heavenly bodies will Okay, so what's gonna happen to this physical creation? What'd you say? Reset, that's a good word for it, right? The elements will burn, it will melt, dissolve. There's all these words. I think it's hard to get the sense that Peter's trying to, it's hard for us to wrap our minds around exactly what's gonna happen in that moment. But in some sense, this physical world will be burned, cleansed by fire, right? The picture here is of a remaking of a, purging by fire, and then a remaking with a new heavens and new earth. The new is not brand new, it's a renewed earth, right? The new heavens, new earth, that word isn't brand new, it's just refreshed, right? Wipe it with fire, we're starting fresh, right? Still this earth in one sense, but it's the new heavens, new earth brought together, and a place for righteousness dwells. So we know that this physical world is not going to last forever. And that should affect our priorities as we think about the Great Commission and the creation mandate. I think there's been a healthy regaining of the creation mandate these days, especially in reformed circles, the idea that we are supposed to work hard and care for the ground and provide for our children and you know, build things that will last a long time for the sake of the future, you know, so that there will be people will be able to do things for many years to come if Christ tarries, right? There's been a healthy regaining of this value of the Great Commission, but I think there's a danger in that of just building empires here on this earth and ignoring the Great Commission and saying, I'm fulfilling the creation mandate and I'm gonna work really hard at my job and just be really successful in my job and build a great lots of wealth for my family, and that's subduing the earth, and I'm carrying out the creation mandate. But if you're doing that in a way where you are prioritizing the physical things of this world and ignoring the need for reconciliation with God, ignoring the need for sinners to come to saving knowledge, then you're not really carrying out the commission from your king. There is a priority to spiritual things over physical things. Not that physical things are bad. We talk about this all the time. Physical things are a good part of the creation, but at the end of the day, spiritual things are the things that are going to last. And so there should be a priority to spiritual work and to spiritual needs as you think about the gifts and the strengths and the capacities that you have. We see an example of this in 1 Timothy 4, 7, and 8. Gathering yourself up while only training is of some value. Godliness is of value in every way, as a bold promise for the present life and also for the life to come. Okay, two kinds of training. What are the two kinds of training that are mentioned there? Bodily training and spiritual, right? Training and godliness. Which one is of more value? Spiritual. Why? It'll always last, right? What is that saying about our bodies? They don't want to always last, right? We're just, we're facing reality there, right? Our bodies are, the outer nature is wasting away, our bodies are breaking down. Creation is not exactly the same because I don't know that creation is necessarily degrading in the same way that our bodies degrade. There is a sense in which we know that there's an end point for our bodies, we know there's an end point for this physical creation. And so there should be a priority of godliness and a priority of spiritual things. in our lives, even though physical things are good and part of God's good creation, and we should care for them and carry out the creation mandate. So it's good to take care of both, right? It says bodily training is of some value, but we do need to have a certain priority for spiritual things. So as we think about applying this a little bit, what should you spend your time doing as a human on this earth? What are you here for? These are hard questions to grapple with. What's your purpose for being here? The creation mandate is still true. I want to make sure you're hearing that, right? You're still supposed to promote order and fruitfulness in this world, store this world, fight against the effects of the fall like disease, hunger, violence, unjust war. Broken family structures, broken relationships, we should be feeding the hungry, we should be clothing the naked, standing up for the oppressed, the widow and the orphan. You should, you know, if the Lord provides this, He's gifted you for this, you should get married and have children. You should give an inheritance to your children if you can, right? It's a biblical concept to pass on to the next generation, to carry this work on. We should have the long view of prosperous work in this world to take care of this creation, carry out our original creative purpose. But all of that with the understanding that this world is not going to last. And that in your life and the decisions that you make, spiritual Spiritual needs should take priority. Spiritual causes and spiritual needs should take priority over physical prosperity in this world. Physical prosperity in this world has a lot of impact on how we go about this ministry of reconciliation. So this doesn't mean that you have to be a missionary. It doesn't mean you have to be a pastor. It doesn't mean that you have to be in full-time Christian service. We should have this order of priorities here. It is very good to do mission work, even as Robert mentioned, Mary Adams, that was an RP witness, I really encourage you to read that. I think there was a generation of Reformed Presbyterians who went all over the world, gave up so much of their ordinary lives to go across the Pacific Ocean on a boat, and to do this kind of mission work, and the Lord used them in powerful ways. And so it's really good to serve the Lord in other callings, but I wonder if we've lost a little bit of that missionary zeal as a denomination. One of my buddies used to talk about the, it's not the American dream, but it's kind of the RP dream where it's like, you've got a like middle income job and you're some kind of an officer in the church and you're in a comfortable community and you know, you kind of, your kids get to go to a good school or something. You know, there's sort of this picture of this is what you should be shooting for. Those are good things. And it may be that God calls you to that, but it could it also be that he calls you to give up a lot of that to go be a missionary somewhere or to go into some other kind of ministry that's challenging and very difficult. We need to love our enemies, love the lost, leave vengeance in the hands of God, and hope that these people that we reach, even if they may hate us for it, that they might at some point come to be reconciled to God. Also, don't miss the fact that in this Great Commission, we should be thinking globally. I think there's a lot of national thinking these days. Kind of like I said before or this morning, is our loyalty, our greatest loyalty to our fellow Americans or is it to our brothers and sisters in Christ? And we need to be thinking about the well-being of all nations and wanting to see people from other nations come to saving faith in Jesus Christ. It was too small a thing for the Messiah to be the Savior of just Israel, as Isaiah says. It's too small of a thing for him to be the Savior of just the U.S., or just the Western world, or just the people who are saved right now. We should want that to go further, and we should have that desire to see More people standing at that last day, praising God side by side with you, that the Lord used you to bring that good news to. And what an amazing and joyful thing that will be, to stand next to people who are also praising Him, because the Lord used you to bring that good news to them. Any other questions or comments? First thing, we thought of the worship of Christ. That when we proclaim Christ as Lord over every institution and every facet of this culture, people treat it like it's the kingdom of God invading their kingdom. And even other Christians will speak of that kind of worldliness. or politics, or whatever holy philosophy it might be, economics, when in fact it's Christ. And without him, we're simply in rebellion against him. Those, the nations of the earth are in rebellion against their rightful king, and we as ambassadors are calling them to submit. Similarly, you know, teaching and whatever else it might be, Congress and the other aspect of life on the side of heaven. You know, we're striving for everything to be affected by the gospel, not necessarily for those things to be nationalism, Christianized nation. Yeah, you can't invade your own territory, right? In Christ, people do that. And we feel that sometimes we do that in our own lives where we try to keep Christ in this box and we feel like he's invading this other part of our lives. And we do that in our society too. And people really push back against any kind of Christian influence on these areas like you're talking about. But when we think about it as Christ is King and He's extending mercy, right? He's being patient and He's offering, He's inviting and He's being so good to this world to give us so much life and goodness and order while He waits and gives time for people to repent. That's a whole different way of thinking of it, that He's already King and He's being merciful instead of He's coming and invading. We're not inserting the kingdom of God into some other area. It's already under the kingship of Christ, and we're bringing that visibly and bringing the mercy of God to that situation. Ginger? That's interesting to me, because I've had the same thought, especially when I read that article, and I thought about that before. It just doesn't seem like there is the mission emphasis within our churches. Pennsylvania where I lived, there was a huge emphasis and awareness of missionaries. It was difficult to list them, where they were, who they were, if we had missionaries or not. But yet there are a lot of mission organizations. Are we getting away from the church sponsoring them so much? and things like AIM and various other groups that are independent but connected to some Yeah, I think that's a good point, actually. I think there's a lot of parachurch or alongside the church mission organizations that have really taken a lot of that organizationally. So we don't have as much of the local congregation support for a lot of mission stuff. I do wonder if we've lost some of the zeal, as I said, but I think another factor is the missionaries that we have sent out to some places recently we can't be public about. That's something I wish, and I feel like we need to maybe find a way for us as a congregation to distribute that in a way that we're not publicizing it, but we need you to know the names of these people, or at least about these missionaries that we've sent places that are currently serving the Reformed Presbyterian Church in other parts of the world that we can't publicize, and we want you to know about them and support them. Because, yeah, it used to be, like, my mom as a missionary kid said it was really strange. She'd go around the country, and everybody knew who she was, because, you know, their photo was on every bulletin board, you know, and it was, that used to be the way it was. We were supporting these missionaries locally, and we need to make sure we're still doing that. Yeah, we have like a code name for it. So we maybe need to be doing some more of that, right? To say, you know, the B family is one of these families. And just for some of you to know that they have little kids, you know, and we could be praying for them. So maybe we need to work some. I know that there's an opportunity through RP Missions to have RP Global Missions to be a Congregational Missions Advocate, which we have not had for a while here in this congregation, but it's a person in the congregation who stays in touch with the RP Global Missions and then tells us about what's going on and keeps us updated. So if anybody's interested in that, talk to me about that. We can see if we can get you hooked up to be our CMA. But I do think we've lost some of that and we need to regain that priority. Father in heaven, we thank you so much for the privilege of serving you as our King, serving you in carrying out the creation mandate, and in this great commission to see this world reconciled to you, to bring about this work of uniting all things in you. So Lord, please help us to make the right choices, to make choices that are honoring to you in how we spend our time and how we spend our resources, that you might be glorified in all that we say and think and do. We thank you for this time together. We pray that you would take us safely home and bring us back next week. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.