so so you Alright, let's stand together and we'll sing it. Always, God is faithful, always. I believe in Jesus Christ. I believe that the dead make the light. I believe there were wonders inside. I believe there are stars in your head And your goodness is good without end You'll never change I will shiver and wonder at the sting of your face But I will greet you close in my name Oh I know yes I Oh Oh I know A holy city built by God's own hand, A place where peace and love sustain. We will stand as children of the Father, We will bend our eyes and give our soul to Him. Till the rain ceases and the work is done, We'll walk by faith and not forsake. I've had the prophets on my back, And the law before Messiah would appear, The power of the Spirit to the Lord To deliver captives and to preach the truth We will stand and sing in honor of Him. We will fix our eyes on Him, our soul to love. We'll praise His praise, and the work is done. We're bought by kings and mothers. Oh Oh Concerning the salvation of the prophets who prophesied, above the grace that was to be your search inquired carefully, inquiring what person or time of the Spirit of Christ in them was indicating when he predicted the suffering of Christ and subsequent glories. It was revealed to them that they were serving not themselves, but you, in things that have now been announced to you through those who preach the good news to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven. Things in which angels long to learn. Therefore, preparing your minds for action and being so reminded, set your hope fully in the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. 1 Peter 1, 10-13. We were weak, without hope, without light Till from heaven You came running, there was mercy in Your eyes To fulfill a law and promise, to avert the world From a fog of endless storming, to a cradle in the dirt Praise the Father, praise the Son, praise the Spirit, three in one. God of glory, majesty, praise forever to the King of kings. To reveal the Kingdom coming, and to reconcile the lost To redeem the whole creation, You may not despise the cross For even in Your suffering, You respond to the other side Knowing this is our salvation, Jesus, for our sins Praise the Father, praise the Son Praise the Spirit, He is one God of glory, majesty Praise forever to the King of kings And the morning that you rose was all of heaven and all its bright! For that stone was built for the good, for the lamb and for her head! And the angels were pledged to you, and the angels were in awe, for your soul was called to God! I Praise the Father! Praise the Son! Praise the Spirit, King Father! God of glory, Majesty! Praise forever to the King of Kings! Praise Him forever to the King of kings. I love you. All the world rejoiced, for the day he comes has come! Oh, friendship untied! Come where faithless Emmanuel, the everlasting Light! rejoiced We'll break the silence, we will shout, we'll stand because we're proud. And the land will rise up, the land and sea, all the people will ascend. We will hate, live in, for eternity. Let's pray. Father, we thank You that we have this time today to worship together, have a meal later on, some good fellowship time. Father, we thank You Now as we give these gifts, may we give them cheerfully out of a heart of love from what you've given us so graciously. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen. So... We'll sing just one more before we look to the Scriptures and to the preaching of the Word of God. But let's stand and behold the Word of God. We'll take some notes. We walk in darkness deep who takes away our sins the Lamb of God. you Prepare the way, make straight the path, for He has spoken to us. who takes away our sin. Behold the Lamb of God, of light and light of breath. Behold the Lamb of God, who died and rose again. Son of God, Emmanuel Son of man, we praise you Behold the Lamb of God Who takes away our sin Behold the Lamb of God Who takes away our sin who died and rose again. Behold the Lamb of God who comes to take away our sins. Scripture reading this morning is from Luke chapter 8. It's going to be verses 1-8. Lord, we thank You for the opportunity to open Your Word, to share Your Word, to be changed by Your Word. Living and active, thoughts and intentions of the heart, Lord, use it to draw us closer to You, convict us of our sin, of our complacency, draw us close to You, Lord, and put the fire in our hearts. We just praise You and we thank You. In Jesus' name, Amen. Luke chapter 8, verse 1. Soon afterwards, he began going around from one city and village to another, proclaiming and preaching the kingdom of God. The 12 were with them, and also some women who had been healed of evil spirits and sickness. Mary, who was called Magdalene, from whom seven demons had gone out, and Joanna, the wife of Hoseb, Herod's steward, and Susanna, and many others who were contributing to their support out of their private means. When a large crowd was coming together, and those from the various cities were journeying to him, he spoke by way of a parable. The sower went out to sow a seed. And as he sowed, some fell beside the road, and it was trampled on her foot, and the birds of the air ate it up. Other seed fell on rocky soil. and as soon as it grew up, it withered away because it had no moisture. Other seed fell among the thorns, and the thorns grew up with it and choked it out. Other seed fell into the good soil, and it grew up and produced a crop of a hundred times as great. As he said these things, he would call I'm not sure if you caught the flow of our songs we just sang today, but I would say that one of the main themes that we heard in there was that God rules and reigns. You know, we were talking about the kingdom of God, we were talking about the rule and reign of God in heaven and on earth, and how he made everything, and in his sovereign control over the universe, speaks things into existence, there it was. And when we think about that and we think of how God is now sustaining his creation, day by day, moment by moment, holding all things together, Colossians chapter 1 says that Jesus is behind all of that. And so we think of the rule and reign of God over his universe in a sovereign, providential way. And so that's one idea of God's kingdom. We can think of God's kingdom as the cosmos, or the universe we might call it, or even more, even on our own earth and how he controls all things. And we can rejoice in that and we trust in him because of that. We're thankful for that. But then we sang about a king. We sang about a kingdom. We sang about a reign, that rules and reigns, and it is in Jesus Christ. And so as we finished up the last song, we sang about, behold the Lamb of God who takes away our sin. And so this God who is the creator God, who made everything and rules and reigns and controls everything, is also the mediator who stands between God and us as the Lamb of God. So we have the great God who created all things and control of all things and who is now become our mediator. So we have what we would call a mediatorial kingdom where God has assigned to humanity the responsibility and accountability to rule and reign over his creation. And we see that right from the beginning and we know that people have failed miserably throughout until Jesus came. And Jesus is ruling and reigning mediatorially over the heavens and the earth, providentially over humanity and over his creation here and his people here in a mediatorial way, which means as a mediator, he stands between God and us. This is what I'm getting out of the songs we just sang today, okay? This is another one that I shouldn't say has nothing to do, has a lot to do with my message today, because my message today has a lot to do with the Kingdom of God. And as we look at Luke chapter 8, which we will in a moment here, and I had I had Bill stop at verse eight because the explanation of that illustration about the seed follows up in same chapter, verse nine. And we'll look at that. We're gonna look at that. And this whole thing, as we look at it in this context, how Luke is proclaiming to us and telling us that Jesus came, he was sent to this earth to proclaim the kingdom of God. Two kingdoms, the heavenly kingdom, the one that he created, and his mediatorial kingdom, or we could call his messianic kingdom, where Jesus comes as the king and rules the reign. So today, as we look at this text, as we look at, and I can tell you right now, we're not gonna cover a whole lot on the kingdom of God, but that is a huge, huge topic. But let's look at it from the context of what Luke has for us today. But before we do that, let's ask the Lord's blessing as we look into his word, as we correlate these truths and put them into its context and understand them so that we can know him better and rejoice and praise him more and more each day. Let's pray. Father in heaven, we're thankful. for this opportunity once more to be to be proclaiming and preaching and declaring your word lord as we look into your scriptures the words that you've given to us your self-revelation to show us exactly who you are and what kind of a god you are and how you want us to live our lives and how we are to see you and how we are to live in peace and in justice in a kingdom that you've given to us, Lord, that rules and reigns in Jesus, our Lord and Savior. So today, Lord, as we look at these words, as we look at this text, may we glean from its truth, may we glean from the words that you've given to us, and we praise you for it. And thank you that the Spirit of God opens our hearts and minds to reveal these truths to us in Jesus' precious name. Amen. I think it was earlier this week, might have been a little bit further back, I was having a discussion with our grandson, Jeremiah. He had finally made a decision on his major at Doerr College or Doerr University, I guess it is Doerr University. He finally made the choice that he wanted to go into criminal justice. That's what he was leaning towards, but he made that final decision. And so now he's involved in these classes. And he was telling me the other day that he had to, in one of his classes, he has to fill out what's called an affidavit. The affidavit is a criminal, I mean not a criminal, it's a legal document that he would lay out the evidence of a case and that evidence and the people involved in that would be going, the witnesses I guess you might say, he would list them out and he would take them before the prosecuting attorney and he would have to lay out his case in order to get a search warrant. to go in to execute this warrant. He had to go before a judge. And one of his assignments is to convince a district attorney that this was worthy to go in. And he actually has to actually go before a district attorney. who's going to come to the class and they're going to do that as practice, just to get them used to what it's like to be in the legal system. To list out witnesses, to list out different things, to fill out the witness statement and lay out the evidence the way it should be understood in order to present a cogent argument for why they want to do what they want to do. And as I look at the Gospel of Luke, isn't that exactly what Luke is doing? He's laying out a chronological, not necessarily chronological, but an orderly account of what Jesus' life was supposed to be, and he's laying it out, and that's what he tells us. The beginning of the Gospel of Luke, all the way, even in the Book of Acts, as you're laying out, he's thinking logically. And so when we ask ourselves, why does Luke put things in certain contexts, in certain places, so that we can glean from the truth and listen to the argument, listen to the evidence, and then say, hmm, okay, that makes a lot of sense. And so as we look at the gospel there, we see him putting all of this together, listing out, and he has his own witness list. Okay, so let's just look at the witness list here. witness list here, okay? I wrote down the witness list. I'm not doing too well as an investigator. I've got it here, honest, I do. All right, so he says this, soon afterward he went on through the cities and village and notice what he's doing, proclaiming and bringing the good news of the kingdom of God. That's something you wanna note. He's proclaiming and bringing good news of the kingdom of God. That term kingdom of God is used in the gospel of Luke 31 times. And then he also uses the word kingdom six more. Would you say or not that Luke is trying to convince us that there is a kingdom rule? The use of that word over and over and over again to me is, hmm, that's pretty strong evidence that that's what Luke wants us to see here. Okay, and so he says, proclaiming the kingdom of the good news of the kingdom, euangelion is the word, good news, okay, good news, euangelion. Angelos, which means message, good news, good message, the message of the kingdom of God. And the 12 were with him. Okay, here's the 12. Peter, we give them their last name, okay? We'll list them out. Peter Fisher, okay? Or James Storm and John Storm, brothers. Sons of Thunder, okay? This is how I came up with their last names, okay? Bear with me. Andrew Leathos. Leathos means stone, okay, whatever. He's the brother of Peter, okay. Philip. Show me. Philip, show me. Nathaniel Figtree. Or Matthew Follower. Or follows. Thomas Leary. James Less. Simon? Zealot. I couldn't come up with anything other than Zealot. Time is out. Thaddeus Childers? Judas. So there's the 12. There's the 12 listed out, okay? We've got 12 people on this witness list, and they're the special ones that Jesus has called himself, and they are the ones, and as we look through, if we go back a few chapters in the Gospel of Luke, we'll see that those names are listed out for us. These are the ones, these are the witnesses that are to go out and testify who Jesus is. to proclaim the kingdom of God. And they are being supported by, Jesus is, and the disciples, these apostles, the sent ones, are going out, supported by people who are giving their financial means to help them. How do I know that? Well, here's a few more witnesses. So we've got the twelve who are with him and some woman who have been healed of evil spirits and infirmities. The casting out of demons, the healing of sicknesses. The word healed there is therapeutic. We get a word therapeutic from it. It carries the idea of taking something that was bad and making it and bringing it to goodness. So we see that's what was going on here and he lists them out. He says, Mary called Magdalene from whom seven demons have gone out. Let's pause on Mary for a moment. Mary has taken some bad rap, okay? Mary has taken some bad rap because it is believed by some that she was the woman of ill repute earlier mentioned in chapter seven. She's guilty by proximity. The question is, is that good evidence? I don't think so. I'm not saying that she's not, but what I can say is that she is one who was demon-possessed. And actually, I was just reading, and I considered reading it to you, but there's a poem called Mary Magdalene, and I thought, you know, but I looked, it's not way too long. Maybe someday, if you ever should get a chance to read it, it's called Mary Magdalene by John Piper. If you wanna go to his website, type it in, you can find it. It's a very, very well done, done a poem about Mary Magdalene. But one of the things we want to see is that we can assign some certain things to Mary that may not necessarily be true. We're tainting the witness, you might say, in one sense. We're saying something about this witness that just might discredit her own testimony. She might be, we don't know. The scripture doesn't say. But what does the scripture tell us that Mary did experience? If we keep up with the scripture, with what the Bible says, what do we see about her? We see that she was a follower of Jesus. She followed Jesus all through his life, all the way to the end, where she was there when he was hung on the cross at the crucifixion, possibly even at the trial. But we do know for sure that she was there when Jesus was put on the cross. She was there when he died. She was there when they put him in the tomb. She was there when she went to the tomb and he was no longer there. And she was there, the first one there, when he was raised from the dead. Did Mary have an important life? importance in the gospel story here? Absolutely. And you know, back in the early 1900s, there was a discovery made in Africa. I think it was a place called Nag Hammadi, and it's a place where they found some old, ancient documents dating back to the second and third century. The Gospel of Peter, the Gospel of Thomas, the Gospel of Mary, Mary Magdalene. They found these documents just a few, less than a hundred years ago, and now all of a sudden, modern society say, oh, we've got some things in addition to, and so then we find out, oh, Mary, Mary Magdalene, she was married to Jesus, and they had children together, and all this, all this, you know, all from something that was written three, four hundred years later, after the Gospels were written. Tainting the witness. painting the witness. Is she a good witness? Yes. She was there at the cross. She was there at the tomb. She was there at the resurrection and she saw it. Marry an important person? Absolutely. Does she have a special relationship with Jesus? Absolutely. Why? Because he had cast demons out of her. She was possessed. Was she convinced that Jesus was the Messiah? Was she convinced that He was the mediator, the one that would come to stand between God and man? Yes! That's one of the important things that we want to know about Mary. She was so convinced and so was Joanna, the wife of Huza. Herod's household manager. So which we see, and what I see there is a contrast between woman who was possessed by demons, rejected by society, and to Joanna in the higher places. And we see that Jesus' mini-ministry was profound. It affected people from all levels of society. And then Susanna. What about her? We know nothing more about her except the meaning of her name, Lily. She's a flower. She's a lily. I don't know if there's any significance to that. But the point is that Luke is telling us that these unlikely witnesses are being held as lifting up to say, you know, if you got questions about this, as he sent this gospel out to those who would read it in his day, and they would say, look it, here are people, check with them. Here's the witness list, go confirm it. And who do you send it to? To the 12. but also to these three women, and many others. And the many others there is in the feminine form. In the Greek language, it's feminine form. And so I believe that Luke is pointing to us the fact that there were a whole lot of women who were following him, who were convinced with no doubt that Jesus was the Messiah. So much so that they took from their own possessions and supported the ministry. And you could go there and you could say, OK, here's an example. And I could go preach a message about why we need to be givers. I mean, there is a principle there. And we can understand that principle. In my commentary from Daryl Bach on this particular chapter, this particular verse, it says, the view of women today differed differ significantly from the first century woman. Many women are as educated and qualified for various roles as men, and many serve with distinction in various capacities. In light of the more traditional distinctions of the church has made between the role of men and women, the text has produced much question as to whether women can do everything in the church, including senior pastoring and eldering. Officers of the New Testament had limited to men. In the midst of the debate about the role of women, we should never lose sight of one thing, that we are all called to serve the Lord, the Messiah, by serving one another. That's the point of this whole text. We could read a whole lot into this and say, okay, this means this, this means that, whatever. What is it showing me? It's showing me that these women were convinced that Jesus was the Messiah and they were willing to give their all for him. And the question is to us, are we willing to do that today too? One of the great regrets of the current discussion of the role of woman is that the discussion has centered on power, fueled more by cultural standards than by biblical standards of service. That's what we should be focusing on. Not the individual, but the service that they were doing, and the one they were doing it for. Even those texts that affirm the headship of a male do so in a way to point to service, not to callous exercise of raw power, Ephesians 5. More attention to these themes might lessen the battles on other matters. The point is, Luke is pointing out to us and to others that the 12 were witnesses, the three plus others were witnesses, and were convinced of the fact of the point that they gave their all. The disciples picked up everything, left, and went, and followed Jesus. These women heard the message, had been healed by him, had demons cast out of them, and what did they do? They followed him, and they served him, and they saw that ministry needed help. And that's the way God operates. Does God need money? God doesn't need any money. He doesn't need it. But does He use it? Yes, He does. That's His means. He uses funds, financial funds, as a means to accomplish His ends. And part of that is to go and preach the good news of the Kingdom of God. And that's what this is all about. I'm never going to get to the parable of the sword. So we're gonna delay that part for next week. The kingdom of God. The good news of the kingdom of God. 31 times in the Gospel of Luke. Six times kingdom. How do we understand that? How do we understand this kingdom? Well, I mentioned that it's a mediatorial kingdom. I mentioned that is a messianic kingdom. It is a kingdom where Christ is going to come, and we have this understanding that the kingdom is coming, and it's true. Jesus is coming again. When Jesus comes again, the kingdom is coming again. But the question is, is the kingdom here now? And I would say yes, there is an idea, there's a thought that there is already a kingdom, and that we as believers are citizens of that kingdom, Jesus is the ruler of that kingdom. He rules in our hearts in a way that is tangible within us by means of the Holy Spirit. So then one says the kingdom is here. Jesus has come. He has called people to himself. He was sent. We come. We're residents of the kingdom, and we are to live a kingdom of life. And what does a kingdom life look like? Well, if we were to go back to Matthew chapter five, six, and seven, we see the Sermon on the Mount, which lists out what the kingdom of heaven is like. Even here, we see that Luke has given us the parable of the Plain, the Plateau, the Plain, which is very similar to the Sermon on the Mount, pointing out, here's how you need to live as a Christian. It's not a measure of how you become a Christian. Jesus is calling people to the kingdom. Here's what kingdom life is about. Luke is writing, you want to be a Christian? Here's how you live your life until Jesus comes again. And we have examples, we have witnesses who gave their lives, gave of their things. And so it says, and it provided for them out of their means. Preaching the kingdom, proclaiming a new world order. That's what preaching the kingdom is. Things are going to be different. It's not going to remain, it can't remain the same. We live in a fallen kingdom. We live in a world that's ruled by satanic and evil people who are destroying the creation God has made. We've been in that since the fall. Jesus came, and actually in Luke chapter four, verse 33, Jesus says, I was sent to proclaim the kingdom of God. That's what Luke says. Why did Jesus come? But he was sent, the father sent the son, not only to be the savior of the world, but to be the king of the world. So preaching the kingdom requires an understanding that there's a new world order. It's a call to reconcile. There's a call to reconcile. And that call to reconcile is not merely, look guys, gals, you gotta just get along. It's far greater than that. It involves koinonia. fellowship with one another, sharing with one another, sharing what we have with one another to help each other to see the troubles that we all have and to see how can I be helpful in helping you in your ways, in your needs, and you're seeing our needs and we work together in unity That's what the Kingdom New World Order is all about. It's a call to reconcile, not just put up with each other. And here we're looking at some people here who are outcasts from society, and they're brought into this kingdom. Some people call them a ragtag kind of people, the ragtags. I'm not sure what ragtag means, but it's not something that I want to be identified with, a ragtag. But maybe I do. Maybe I do want to be it. Maybe we are. And actually, in the past, we've used these terms before about our church. When we do a self-evaluation, we look at it and we've used the term misfits. We're just a group of misfits that God has brought together. And you know, isn't that true? We are misfits. We don't fit in. But we do fit in. Because God had called us to fit in. So we are a ragtag people. Redeemed. And God is intentionally bringing people together who are at odds with one another. If you look at the 12, and I think I mentioned this before, you look at the 12 and say, okay, you got a fisherman, you got a tax collector, you got a sikari, you got this, and they're looking at them all together saying, how are these people gonna get along? They come from all different kind of walks of life. They're at odds with one another, but Jesus says, no, that's the kind of people I want. I want to bring them in, and I want to create a new world order. And that's what he's come to do, which requires a radical way of life. It's a change that is radical. This doesn't make sense to the world, which requires a radical generosity, the giving of ourselves, the giving of the things that we have, and ultimately, the giving of our life. It's a kingdom where justice reigns. Where nothing is unfair. All are equal before God. Treated fairly in a new family. Restored. Not through charity, but through love. This is terrible. But through love. Jesus is bringing a change to the social structure that is identified as selflessness. Selflessness. It's the bringing about of righteousness. from within us that is not within us, but from God, who is working through us and His righteousness as being laid out and promoted into the world so that people will say, man, you people are different. How many people look at the church and say, you're no different than the rest of the world? The question is, are we different? It's a kingdom that brings about righteousness and justice. How, by rescuing the disadvantaged, not just tolerating oppression, but are adamant about stopping it, the violence. We are compelled, as kingdom residents, we are compelled to be different. Translate that. Be different. You know how you define that? Be holy. We need to live a holy life. Be holy, for I am holy, God says. I need to portray myself in reality and in truth, that I belong to Jesus by how I live my life, by what I think, by what I do, by how I speak, and the things that mark me as who I proclaim to be to show the reality and the truth of who I really am. It brings back a dignity. to humanity, to where it was supposed to be in the beginning. And it all comes through a man. It all comes through the mediator. God put Adam as a mediator, God put Abraham as a mediator, and Noah as a mediator, Abraham, and Moses, and all the other kings, and he made them as mediators, and they all failed miserably, and then one comes, his name's Jesus, And people see him and say, ah, he's the mediator. He's the one. I know my mediator lives. I know my redeemer lives, Job said. He's alive. And we know it because he rose from the dead. How do we know? Mary told us. She saw it. So are we convinced? Are we convinced enough to look at the lives of others to say, you know, Jesus is worth following. He's worth my life. He's worth giving my all and all. And the question is, is that true for us? Are these just stories that we look back at? Or are they truths that are presented to us to say, here's how you live your life. Here's what we're to do. Follow me. Do what I say. If you love me, you'll do what I say. You keep my commandments. Demonstrate that we love him. The question is, are we doing that? Well, next week we'll look at the Parable of the Sower. It lays out four different types of individuals that the world is filled with, that we come from, that we are no longer of, We'll accept the final one. And we grow. All right. You belong. The defendants, Peter, James, John, Andrew, Philip, Nathaniel, Matthew, Thomas, James, Simon, Thaddeus, Mary Magdalene, Johanna Kouza, Susanna Lilly. Incredible witnesses. Absolutely. They get to investigate and see that Jesus is the one. And they saw it. Do we see Jesus as the one? If we do, we live for him. All the days of your life. Thank you for the testimony of Luke. It points us to a group of people, a ragtag people who who you have made from nothing into something, from all walks of society, from all different backgrounds. and troubles and all the different things, and Lord, we see that that's how you continue to work today, Lord. You work in bringing and drawing people to yourself, but we, as believers, need to have our eyes open and to be willing to embrace and call those who are yours unto yourself. Lord, Lord, as we look at your Word, we see your Word tells us that it's finished. Your work is finished, absolutely, but ours is not. Are we finished yet? No, we're not finished, we're still here. Father, I pray that you would impress on our hearts and our mind the reality of who Jesus is, to be convinced so much that when you were here and these people saw you and you healed and you cast out demons and you did all these things that you're capable of doing, that through us you can do great, you can accomplish great things. Maybe not to that level, but Lord, someday we know that when you do come, it's gonna be great, it's gonna be amazing. As you rule and reign as the king, as you rule and reign as our messiah, our Lord, savior, master, and king, as our redeemer. Thank you, Lord, for drawing us into Yourself. May You use us now. May we be willing participants in the Kingdom, not just spectators, but be participants in the Kingdom of God. I praise You for it all. Christ, preciously. Amen. Stand with me as we sing, Before You I Kneel. Let's get to work. For You, my Heal, my Master and Maker, You offer the work of my hand. This is the day You've given Your servant. I will be joyously glad. For Your strength I have to live and breathe. For each skill your grace has given me, for the needs and opportunities that will glorify your name. For You my heal and ask for Your goodness To cover the work of my hands With patience and ease to shape all my labor Your grace for thorns in my path Oh, within me like a living stream Wear away the stones of pride and greed, Till your ways are dwelling deep in me, And the hardness of life is gone. For you we heal, our Master and Maker, this heavenly show of our name. Order ourselves to seek first your kingdom In every small and great attempt May we live the gospel of your grace Serve your purpose in our fleeting days Then our lives will bring eternal praise And the glory to your name Father, we look on the screen, we see you've just sung a worker's prayer. And I know, for me, I work to put food on the table and to have something to give to others. But I don't always think that I am. In work, every day I'm to be showing others that I have been called out of the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of light, that I am a member of the kingdom of Jesus Christ. Father, help us to just think on what we've heard this morning. We are to be witnesses of the Jesus who came proclaiming and bringing the kingdom of God. So help us to be those who do, by your grace, have our steps ordered to seek first your kingdom, If we get our priorities right, Father, we'll be good witnesses and be a good testimony. So again, by Your grace, help us to our dead end. In Jesus' name, amen.