So yeah, 2 Timothy 2, and we're over in verse 20. But before we jump into that, I wanna give you a little history on that, because as, like I said, as I was reading this book, and I have another book that was describing each of the movies, and to be able to see, like today, earlier when we did the devotions, and we were talking a little bit about it in Canto, it was the 60th anniversary. Disney animated film that has been made. The 60th. So you think about that. This was made, Beauty and the Beast was made in 1991. It was the 30th, so that's halfway to now. And it's the third of the Renaissance films for Disney after The Little Mermaid and The Rescuers Down Under. I don't know if you remember that. Rescuers Down Under is just beautiful. And I love Mick Leach, you know. What was it? I didn't get to the fifth grade for nothing. It's like that kind of thing. But it's a story based on a French fairy tale from the mid-1700s. And Walt Disney actually tried to adapt this classic tale into film. Disney died, I think, in 1968. He wanted to put this into a film as early as the 1930s, and again in the 1950s, but it was unsuccessful. And so that project was shelved. But after the success of The Little Mermaid, He tried unshelving it once again and developed into even greater success. So Beauty and the Beast, it won a Golden Globe for Best Picture. It was the first ever animated film to win in that category. In addition, it became the first animated picture to be nominated for an Oscar in the same category. And the last time an animated movie would even be nominated for an Oscar was Up in 2010. It actually lost the Best Picture to Silence of the Lambs. I don't know if you've ever seen that. I'm not recommending it to you guys. In total, it was nominated for six Oscars, including three different songs, winning two of them for Best Song and Best Musical Score. Listen to this. And you guys may know this already, but did you know that every single line from the winning song, Beauty and the Beast, has five syllables? And if you check out the lyrics, you'll see that yourself. A few more things. Belle is Disney's first brown-haired princess. Songs take up 25 minutes of the film, and there are only five minutes without any musical score at all. So that tells you the work that was put into this. But as you think about this girl, and I know it's a story. Sometimes we can get into these things so much, and it's like, it's just a story. But stories are what drive us a lot of times. Stories are what move us. If you think about some of the things that are philosophical movements, even down through history, a story, a book, was the thing that was used to do just that. My prayer is that this book would drive you, that this book would be the book that you would look to. All those other things are great, and they're in their proper place there, what would be helpful. But this is, and I mentioned it earlier, this is God-breathed. The word inspiration, which we get in the book of 2 Timothy, where it says, all scripture is God-breathed. inspired of God, that word inspired actually means God-read, okay? So when you and I are reading this, we're reading the breath of God, and he's got good breath, he doesn't have bad breath, all right? It's good, all right? So let's pray again as we're looking at this together. Father, thank you so much for just the joy that you bring, and I'm asking you, God, that as we're looking at your word again tonight, that you would help our focus, help our understanding to be hearing from you, and that we wouldn't be pushed by a fleshly, I'm gonna try harder thing. It's more, God, I just wanna rest in you, and I wanna trust you, and we're taking on your yoke, and I'm asking you to come alongside me and help me with these things. Because left to myself, I'm not gonna be able to do what we're talking about today. So please, God, help us. In Jesus' name, amen. So I entitled this, Be Our Guest, and the whole idea is an idea of servanthood and service. And so this morning when we were talking about the idea of what God brought us from, from death, giving us life, and then what I want you to do with that life, well now I'm gonna hand to you something that is an encouragement that as you think about, okay, where do I go from here as I'm gonna be heading home in a couple days, and the time will fly because we're having fun, and that you would want to be somebody that would, I want this stuff to stick. I want this stuff to change because in this environment, it's somewhat easy to do Christian stuff because we're kind of forced that way. But you guys all know, we're gonna go home and there's different temptations that hit us and things along that line. So this is encouraging you toward service and serving the Lord. So point number one, is the criteria of service, okay? Look with me at verse 20 of 2 Timothy 2. Now in a great house, and it made me think of this when we were thinking about the whole idea of when Bell was put into that house of the beast, all of these people have been cursed and they take on different rolls in the, you know, I got a guy that's Lumiere, he's a candlestick, a candle there, we got the clock, we have all these different things. Well, it's kind of God's using this metaphor for us with this. Look at this, he says, now in a great house, there are not only vessels of gold and silver, but also of wood and clay, some for honorable use, some for dishonorable. This word vessels is a Greek word that's very general and was used to describe various tools or utensils or furniture that was found in a home. And so he's using this great house analogy. And you'll see, and I like this about Paul, he uses metaphors a lot. He uses analogies a lot. And do you know what those are metaphors? They're word pictures so that we take something that we would know about Furniture or something and he uses that to bring us to something spiritual. That's kind of nebulous It's kind of like out there. We're not sure we understand and so I'm gonna take something that you guys know about So that you can understand what I'm talking about And he does that a lot he does it with sports he does it with I military stuff with like the armor of God. And here he's, and he tries to pick things that the culture that he's talking to would understand. Jesus did it. He did it with agricultural stuff. He talks about sheep. He talks about sowing and reaping. He talks about, you know, so if Jesus lived today, he may bring up, he may have brought up technology. But they didn't have that then. So he's using what those people understand. And it's nice that we, for the most part, all live in houses with stuff that we would listen to this and go, oh, that makes sense to me. I can understand that. And so he's using this. And he's contrasting two kinds of utensils or serving dishes. Some for honorable, he says. So can you imagine this? These are the things, if you have it in your home, These are in a wealthy home. You're like, well, that ain't my home. Okay. But if you can imagine the ones that are made of precious gold or silver, they're used for honorable purposes, such as serving food to family and guests. So I don't know about you. A lot of times we're in a hurry. So we use paper plates and stuff, but every now and then like Thanksgiving or something special, you have a China cabinet and you bring that out. and it's something that is set before you as, oh, hey, this is something really special. This is something that's taken some time. This is something very honorable. And so we can, oh, that makes sense. But then he says, some for dishonorable. And these would be made of wood and clay, and they were not for honorable use, but rather those things that would seem to be repulsive, disposing of garbage, and the filthy waste of the households. It's like the slop bucket, okay? So I get, I've been the past two tables, I've been stuck, I've been the runner. So I get to come to the table with the food and I seem to be, you know, appreciated, I hope, you know, but I come with that. And then there's always the person that has to be, I haven't had it yet, but that day has happened over the past, but, oh, the scraper. But we need both. but the scraper is dealing with the dishonorable thing. And it's like, a lot of times we don't want the dishonorable thing. We like the honorable thing. And God understands that. And as he's sharing this in the word, we can get, oh, okay, that is something that's good. That's something that, oh. And God is calling you and me to honorable work. We understand that things have to be done a certain way, God wants you to know I don't want you to live in filth. I want you, you were dead, I made you alive, and I've got this for you. And I'm saying to you guys, what are you gonna do with what God has given you? Because I've done snow trips for now over 28 years. I've had different groups come through and people have big dreams and big wishes and stuff. And I've seen some go downhill because of decisions and some that great things have happened. And it's a work of God. And a lot of it was decisions made in their youth. So what are you gonna do with the wisdom that God gives you as a believer? Because you can reject it. And I'm saying to you, the better decision is to follow Christ. The better decision is to go with him. And I just, I don't wanna keep beating that drum, but I think you could see that. Point number two, the condition of service. Look at verse 21. Therefore, you know what, in good Bible study, and those of you probably heard this before, when you see the words therefore, you wanna understand what's it there for, okay? And it's a joining word, it's a conjunction that's pointing back to what we just talked about, the honorable and dishonorable stuff. So he's going, now I wanna build a point and I want you guys to hear me on this. Therefore, if anyone cleanses himself from what is dishonorable, So anyone, that's whoever wants to be useful to the Lord for noble purposes, even a common wood bucket or a clay pot becomes useful when it's purged and made holy, cleanses himself. The Greek word means to thoroughly clean out or to completely purge. For any waste bucket in the house to be used for a noble purpose, It would have to be vigorously scoured, cleansed, and purged of all vestiges of its former filth. He wants you and I to understand that we can constantly go back to the pig sty if we want to. We can, it's easy. It's easy to slide into a shoe of bad habits and bad decisions, but he's calling us to something better. So he says, therefore, if anyone cleansed himself from what is dishonorable, he will be a vessel for honorable use, set apart as holy, useful to the master of the house, ready for every good work. And so this, what is dishonorable? Well, that's the vessels of dishonor that are in the verse we just read. It's associating with anyone who teaches error and lives in sin is corrupting. And so I'm asking you today, who are the people that you spend a ton of time with? By the way, I want to have friends that don't know the Lord. I do, but I don't want to make that the preeminent group of people that I'm spending time with, because the Bible says this, and it's real practical, bad company corrupts good morals. And I've seen this over and over and over again, people going, I know I'll be a witness, and they head into these things, and they start making really bad decisions. I'm telling you, because we're weak. And so when I was saying the thing that I was saying to you about earlier, remember talking this morning about what happened with my home? There were times that it was tempting to just chuck this stuff. And something just kept calling me back to the church, to my youth group. And it saved me. I'm telling you, it saved me. I had friends that were constantly dabbling in the world and they made bad decisions about relationships. They made bad decisions about the future. And by the way, my wife, my, my wife, my life, I haven't always made the best decisions, but I'm telling you, God has kept me from a lot of stuff because of his grace and because I'm like, I'm, I'm gonna stick with, I'm going to stick with these things. I'm going to actually believe God, even though some of that stuff was calling me. Remember, I was working at a theater. I had a job opportunity at Jewel Osco. You know what Jewel Osco is? It's a store that has a pharmacy to it. I don't know if we have any in Missouri or in Illinois. I was picking between that and working at Pickwick Theater. And Pickwick Theater was the theater in our town. And I remember when I first was working there, this was back in 1977, like Star Wars came out, Saturday Night Fever. I could list all these movies. And so I picked the movie theater. And by the way, I love movies. I have no problem with that. But I could start to see in my life certain decisions, and I was starting to head a direction. I was putting church a little on the back burner. I was rationalizing in my mind, well, I'll be a witness, and I was a witness, but I was starting to step away from church a little bit, step away from youth group a little bit. I remember having a few reminders of those old guys at church, hey, we haven't seen you lately, you know, and stuff, and they were like, oh, yeah. And I just remember, I can't keep doing this. I don't know how the Lord used some reminder, but he did. And it got me to be where I needed to be at church again. And I need to be around believers. Still had my unsafe friends that I was spending time with and stuff, but making those things are a priority. And so we see here that that is the calling of God. on our lives and that he wants us to be people that gravitate toward that. Look at the first part of verse 22. This is a powerful verse. So flee youthful passions and pursue, and he starts listing some things, righteousness, faith, love, and peace. Now this doesn't mean So I can speak to all of you, it's not just youth. This doesn't mean if you're young, you're to flee lusts. It means regardless of your age, you're to flee youthful lusts. And the battle is real till the day we die. We got this old guy in our church named Ed Powley. He's like 93, I think. And he's just such a great man of God to be around. And it's interesting as a man, as we're talking in our groups and things along that line, and you look at a guy like Ed and you go, you know, Ed, he's probably never struggling with certain sins anymore. And I remember talking to him one time about that. I go, Ed, you know, when was it, you know, where these things weren't an issue for you anymore? And we didn't necessarily go into the list of what those things were. And he goes, When what? I said, well, when did that stop? And so he goes, well, I ain't dead yet. And I thought, that is such good truth to hear. So if you're thinking, guys and girls here, if you're thinking there's going to be this magic age where you're never going to have a problem in this area of whatever that is. And if I start listing things, because this word means desires, youthful desires. It could be a bunch of different things. A lot of times we go, we gravitate right for sex. And it's a very strong drive. It's a very strong pull. But it could be a host of things. If your heart's desire is, I don't want this to be an issue, you're going to have to fight Constantly concerning that, and to flee. Remember that story about Joseph? Remember what happened with Joseph in the Bible where that Potiphar's wife was making advances toward him and things along that line. Do you remember what he did? And Joseph, the Bible constantly says about Joseph, and God was with him, and God was with him, and God was with him. Do you remember what he did? He didn't stay there and go, no, I'm determined, I'm gonna stay here, and I'm gonna witness to this woman, He ran, and Joseph was godly. He ran because he knew, I'm gonna end up doing something stupid if I do this. And even after he did that, bad stuff happened to him by the world's perspective. But God used all of those things to ultimately make him the man of God that he needed to be. And so I'm saying to you, you may flee something, and with your friends or with whatever, whatever the situation, it might not end up right. He ended up in jail. He ended up in prison. And you do the right thing, and then from it, you don't necessarily have everybody going, hey, you're amazing. So there may be even people joking about it. But God, trust him. I'm telling you, I can say to you today, I can go back to my high school, and there's not one girl that could point at me and go, you did this. And I'm telling you, it's not because I was so amazing. It was, well, I'm not that good looking, but still, it was one of those things where it was like, God saved me, God protected me. And you know what helped me, actually? I was listening to, there was this guy named Josh McDowell, years ago, preacher, and he said this thing in this, I remember this cassette tape I was listening to, it's called Maximum Dating, and he goes, treat a girl like you would want somebody to treat your sister. And I'm telling you, that helped me so much. I was like, oh, I don't want anybody doing stuff with my sister. Well, I'm gonna treat a girl like that. Guys treat girls that way. Treat them with respect and love. Girls treat guys with the respect. And walk away because I'm telling you, It's so beautiful that I don't have regrets. I got other regrets, but I'm telling you, I don't have regrets. And that I know guys that they carry stuff. I know girls that carry stuff. Don't add to your backpack. We got enough stuff we're carrying, don't add to it. So if today is the day that you determine, I'm gonna be somebody that flees youthful lusts, that you would do it. And I get it right from the word here. He wants me to flee youthful lusts. He goes on, he says, pursue righteousness, faith, love, and peace. So that's the things, I flee, and I love this, God wants me to flee something bad and go to something good. I've used this illustration so many times with you guys. You know where I'm going, don't you? Where you've got a junk drawer in your house. You guys got a junk drawer in your house? Everybody knows what it is, Pat. And you go, not that you guys wake up to do this, today I'm going to clean out the junk drawer. But none of you are thinking that. Who are we kidding? But you know certain things are in there and stuff. And so you clean it out. And the junk drawer is cleaned out. If you don't put something good in there, I'm telling you, within days, the junk drawer is filled again. And it's filled to the point where you can't even open it, where your hand hurts, you know, pushing things down, you're trying to open it. It's just, and that's what happens with our life. I clean out the junk drawer, and instead of putting faith, righteousness, all those things in it that should be, I'm like, my junk drawer's clean. I fled youthful lusts. but it doesn't take long. Our lives, it's just, things will fill in it. And so I'm saying to you, if you empty yourself of that, ask God, I want these things to take that bad good, bad habits that I've got. God, I want you to give me a good habit. Like, let me ask you, and it's just a, I've mentioned this before to different groups. Do you read the Bible every day? Because some of you are like, oh, we have chapel at my school, Do you read the Bible every day? There are, and I do an app on my phone called Daily Audio Bible. If you want to write that down, Daily Audio Bible, it's a simple app. And I work through the Bible in a year. And in the morning, when I'm getting ready, I put that on and the Bible is being read to me. It's not like I'm sitting down reading the Bible and I'll say, well, that's lazy. But it starts my day off. And within a year, I get through the Bible. And what's cool about it for me is, and I've read the Bible a couple times, all right? It's kind of my job, you know? I hear something new almost every day. Something that's like, I didn't know that was in there. I look back later, it's like, oh, that's really cool that God used that. So that may be the start for this year. We're in January, time for resolutions and new habits. I would wanna encourage you, if you don't read the Bible, You've got an app that reads the Bible to you. Take advantage of that and allow God to use that. And then the Bible study and those things will come along, but I just want to encourage you, just that simple thing of allowing God to use his word in that way. So when you're struggling, if you don't flee and run to those who call upon the Lord, because he says, So flee youthful passions and pursue righteousness, faith, love, and peace, along with those who call on the Lord from a pure heart. So it's like, it's I'm doing this with somebody else too. I'm doing this in community. Some of the things I mentioned to you, Pastor Dave Fox, he's like my best friend, okay? We talk all the time. If I'm really dealing with something that I'm struggling with, I'll text him, hey, please pray for me on this stuff. and back and forth. We don't necessarily have to say what that is, but do you have a friend like that? Do you have a friend that you can talk to? I can talk to my wife, I can talk to my wife, but also having this friend too is just so helpful. I just wanna encourage you to do that. Let's keep going, verse 23. Now, I want you to notice, he's giving us bullet points. So this is really practical stuff for if you want to be a servant of God, what that would look like. Some of you may be like, I don't want to serve God. But I'm saying if you want to serve God, here's what he just says, have nothing to do with foolish, ignorant, I love that, that's ignorant, ignorant controversies. You know that they breed quarrels. And so he's saying, avoid useless arguments, stop wasting time. Have you ever been around somebody that's just constantly argumentative? They're constantly looking to stir the pot. They're constantly causing trouble. And they'll bring up stuff that's like, really? And things that really matter. If you were to say, you know, that's interesting, but let's talk about this. They would never want to talk about that. But they want to do this. He's saying, quit wasting your time. There's so many things that you and I could waste our time about. Some of the drama. God bless you girls. Some of the things, girls, what you deal with. Sometimes guys are like, you know, guys will get into a fight, punch each other in the throat, you know, all the different things that'll go on. And within like a day, they're fine. Girls, some of the things that you, God bless you girls. And God bless you when you invest in girl relationships. Don't stop doing that. Because I see some girls, I just can't get along with you. So I'll spend time with God. Yeah. Because guys are easy for some girls. They're like, they just, you know. The guys are like, notice how my hair moved when I did that. But you know what I'm saying? And there's something, I've talked to my daughter about this. She says, girl relationships can be so hard, but they're so worth it. They're so worth it. And guys, develop friendships that are not just shallow. Some of the things that guys, and they'll only talk about certain things, and you wanna go a little deeper, and they just can't. And part of that is, they got no depth. They got no depth. Don't be a depthless person, guys. That's just how I am. Wow. Push yourselves a little bit. I'm looking around this room, just in the conversations I had with you guys, I've really enjoyed just the times at the different tables and stuff and being able to talk, but I want you to even go farther. Go farther. There's just a beauty to that. Last point here. The character of service. So he's going on with these bullet points. Listen to this, verse 24. And I like, you know, I talk about be our guest or the idea of being a servant. And the Lord's servant, so if you want to be a servant of God, must not be quarrelsome, but kind to everyone. Wow. If I'm going to be a, I can't be a person that looks to be offended. I can't be a person that's looking to shut things down. Because I'm a pastor, I've, you know, you just get to know people. You watch people. You get into people's lives. And there'll be people that will come to church. And I'll watch either the wife or the husband. And it looks like one of them's in and one of them's not necessarily in. I'm just telling you what goes on. And it's almost like one of them is waiting to be offended so that they got an excuse to leave the church. I don't always read it right, but I've seen it over the years, and it doesn't take long, and church hopping goes on, because there's never a perfect church. I'm just blessed right now as I look out at my church family that I'm seeing a group of people that are in, they're wanting to do this thing called church. They wanna be invested, they wanna be involved, they're taking this seriously. So that's a good thing. You, if you wanna be a servant of the Lord, don't look to be offended. Don't look for things to be wrong in places. He says, don't be, Don't be quarrelsome. And then he says, but kind to everyone. Now, that's hard. There's certain people we gravitate toward. I want you to be kind to everyone, not just people that I agree with. And so to everyone, that means I have to make an effort for everyone. We try to encourage, like when we have potlucks, you guys have potlucks at your church? Where you get together for meals or something? They call it potluck. I call it pot providence because I don't believe in luck. I'm so spiritual. But I love watching people make the effort to talk to somebody that they don't necessarily spend time with all the time at something like that and stretching themselves. Well, that's not me. And the Lord's servant must not be quarrelsome, but could be kind to everyone. Well, how do I do that? I get out of something, and so, oh, but you're good at that, Pastor Mark. You like that. Do you know how much work that is for me? No, and I love people, but I literally have to go, that person over there, they ain't me. And I force myself. And what I found out at, some great things have happened. I'm encouraging you to start that as a habit as you're young and allow God to use that. Kind to everybody. Let's keep going. Able to teach. I don't like teaching. If you want to be a Lord's servant, I want you to be. And by the way, we teach in different ways. I love spending time with Zach. Zach, you don't know how much you teach me, bud. No, I'm serious. And Zach, you don't get up in front of the church, you don't, but I'm literally, I love spending time with Zach because I'll be talking to him and he knows all this stuff about all these different things. Man, I just pick his brain on stuff. And I could go around the room with people I spend time with, how do you guys know about all this stuff? Dakota, you've been amazing me with some of the things you talk about. I'm like, where do you find time to know about these things? And I could keep going on with all of you. I don't want, some of you are walking around. I don't want to make all of you arrogant, so I won't keep bragging. But I'm just so blessed spending time with you guys. You're teaching in our conversations. Everybody teaches. Let me ask you, What are you teaching about? Because, ah, I could never teach. If I spend enough time with you and I find out what the thing is that's your thing, I'm amazed at how, oh yeah, you know all the facts about it, you know all these things, and I'm saying to you, as you spend the time in the Word, as you're praying, as you're growing close to the Lord, I'm telling you, that hobby that you have, that thing that you hold up to as a great value, What happens is you start to morph into that the spiritual things of the word that the gods, and so it isn't just a hobby for your entertainment because 100 years from now, who cares? It's important. No, it ain't. And that's my stuff too. It's not important. But what God could do with that thing, I really believe he gives us all these desires so that you and I could reach people with whatever that thing is. But instead, I've seen this, especially with men, we like our man cave, and we like our entertainment, and we like our hobbies, and we like our time. And God is saying, I didn't give you that just for you. How can you leverage that for my glory so that it would be used for eternity? I think that's fun. That's exciting to me of what that could look like. So look what he goes, he says, able to teach patiently enduring evil. So he has that, he wants us to be people that have that in our life so that we would understand, oh God, you gotta help me through this. And let's keep going. Verse 25, correcting his opponents with gentleness. This is primarily unbelievers captive to Satan, but also could include believers that are deceived by these foolish and ignorant speculations of what they've been buying into. And he's saying, I want you to, Gently talk to those people. Don't walk into, like a bull in a china shop, and just, you know, with your shotgun of holiness, shooting it up the room. You literally, you're going with them with gentleness. You're loving these friends that don't know the Lord, or those that have walked away from the Lord. And then I love this, and this shows the sovereignty of God. God may perhaps grant them repentance. leading to a knowledge of the truth. So that's even a work of God. So you're sharing, you're loving them, you're spending time, a friend that may not have been a youth group for a while, that you, instead of the pastor, a youth pastor making the call, that you out of love would go, hey, how are you doing? Boy, we miss you. It speaks volumes. I'm telling you, this is a side thing for a moment. But when new people come to your church, new people come to your youth group, something that wins the day is when you make the effort to include them. They... I was talking to one guy one time, in leadership of our church, and he said he went to a church and he goes, nobody greeted him, nobody said anything to him, and the pastor ran out into the parking lot, because he had got done preaching, and this guy, he made it out, and he goes, hey, I just wanted to say hi, and stuff like that, and he goes, and the pastor came, and that was good, and he goes, but that don't count. And you're like, pastors don't count? Well, he should be doing that. I should be doing that. I try. But when you do it, when you do it, it's gold. See, I'm good, but you're good for nothing. I get paid to be good. You're good for nothing. I love that line. Don't be bitter now. Don't be offended. Yeah, don't look to be offended. Thank you. You're hearing me, that's good. So God may grant these repentants. Let's keep going, verse 26 as we're wrapping up. And they may come to their senses and escape from the snare of the devil. Wow, the snare of the devil. After being captured by him to do his will. Deception is Satan's trap. And he's scheming, and he's clever, and he's subtle, and he lies. And he may be even lying to you. He sets a snare constantly. This thing, this thing. If you do this, this will make you happy. Come on, do this. This will make you happy. He's lying. And then you're caught. And you develop a habit. that you regret. Remember the first time I saw porn, Johnny Rodriguez brought a magazine to the playground. This is pre-internet. This is pre-all those things. And I remember, I was like, oh, this is what this is like. I'm little. And as you get older, this thing would just call you. And the temptation, don't tell anybody. Don't tell anybody. This is a little secret. And I could pick other sins. Yeah, this will make you happy, just do this. And you're like, what have I gotten into? And I'm saying what will help is uncovering sin, is owning it. When we confess, when we acknowledge, whatever that thing is, There's a power to that, and it takes away, but there's everything in you. If I just don't talk about this, and if I just act like everything is okay, and we're not made for that. We're made for honesty. There's a freedom in that. The snare of the devil, whatever that thing may be. I picked one just then, but I could keep going. after whatever, I may hit yours, okay? But it's the Spirit of God speaking to you, because you want to be a servant of God, for honorable use, that you would be willing to say, God, whatever it is, I'm sliding this stuff your direction. I'm giving you the, our worship leader, which is Matt's dad, says, the great transaction. I give God my sinfulness, and I get his righteousness. What a deal. And that's what God offers us. Let's pray. Father, thank you again for your goodness and grace. And thank you for this group and how attentive they've been. And I'm asking you now that you would encourage them, strengthen them. challenge them, do exactly what each of them needs, so that when it's all said and done, we look back and we go, wow, God, that was a great weekend in you, and that you would grant repentance. And it's in Jesus' name that we pray, amen.