Matthew chapter 13 this morning. Great singing this morning. It's interesting that we always just sing Christmas carols just once a year. And so we remember some of them, but some of them not so much. But I couldn't help it as we sang the joyous dawn. Boy, what a wonderful picture of our Savior and what He's done for us. And certainly we of all people should be most joyous at this time of year. and what should bring us most joy is not the lights and the beautiful greenery and by the way I appreciate so much the the way the auditorium has been decorated but just the fact that Jesus alone saves and he came as a babe in a manger look with me in Matthew chapter 13 as we continue our way through this glorious gospel this has brought me such great joy even this week in studying I trust that it will be communicated to you in a way that would be life-changing for you as you grow and understand who Christ is and what he's done look at me in verse 31 verse 31 and we'll read through the verse 35 Jesus put another parable before them saying the kingdom of heaven is like a grain of mustard seed that a man took and sowed in his field it's the smallest of all seeds but when it is grown it is larger than all the garden plants and becomes a tree so that the birds of the air come and make nests in its branches he told them another parable the kingdom of heaven is like leaven that a woman took and hid in three measures of flour till it was all leavened All these things Jesus said to the crowds in parables. Indeed He said nothing to them without a parable. This was to fulfill what was spoken by the prophet. I will open my mouth in parables. I will utter what has been hidden since the foundation of the world. This is the Word of God. May we find our heart's delight in it this morning. From the very beginning back in Genesis the world and all that God created was at our fingertips. And it was at our fingertips for us to enjoy, for us to revel in, for us to celebrate, and to cherish, and to reflect back to God His marvelous perfections, and His glories as we had opportunity to experience them all. We lived in perfection. Everything that God had created was very good, and was designed by Him to fulfill in us His great glory. It was designed to content us. It was designed by God that we would find our soul's greatest delight in enjoying. God said it was very good. I'm getting a little bit of feedback on my mic. I don't know if you hear that. I do, and I'm like, I'm not sure it's echoing. But it all fit. And get that picture in your mind. It makes perfect sense. It made perfect sense to us physically. It made perfect sense to us emotionally. And spiritually it made perfect sense as man walked in the cool of the evening with God and fulfilled all the expectations that God had put upon us. But then when Adam and Eve gave into the slight and deceptive twist of truth that Satan spun. It began to fall apart immediately, almost from the inside out. Nothing fit. And emotionally, physically, and spiritually, everything changed. The curse had brought fatal destruction to everything. In a spiritual sense, it brought death, separation from God. In an emotional way, it brought fear and such anxiety that caused us to hide and to run from problems. And those problems in our running and our hiding have dogged us to this very day. Physically it brought such a deterioration and disease to our body that eventually every person will succumb to that physical deterioration called death. That death is unavoidable. It's a spiritual death. In very much ways it's an emotional death, and it's a spiritual and physical death. It is this world that our Christ steps into. Now think about that with me. It is this world that the king of the universe steps into. It is a world very much like our world even today. It was a world of spiritual deadness and even though there was much external religious busyness and celebration amongst many people, the people of God were dead. They were blind, they were deaf, and they were unable even to recognize the promised Messiah himself. The years and decades and even centuries of deceit and fear and anxiety from running and rebelling against the will of God had taken effect, and it became a series of stumbling blocks of sin to come and speak the truth. They didn't understand Jesus. They didn't understand the prophets. And when they heard it, they couldn't accept it. to day two or week two of the celebrations of Advent, the coming of our Christ. And we take a look at the Old Testament and we see on every page a promise given by God that His word is to be believed. That His word and His promises are the only sure thing in this world. And yet today, for many, instead of warming our hearts in these truths, that Christ really did come, that Christ really did perfectly live on our behalf, and He really did die the most cruel death possible, and He victoriously rose for our salvation, we find, for many, the truths of Christmas actually can be major hurdles for them to get over because of their unbelief. There's so much symbolism that is cherished in our world while the substance of the truth behind the symbolism goes ignored. It goes pushed aside and not even known by so many. As I mentioned earlier, where we were in France, you see these kind of random pictures of Christmas and so many people don't understand. They can't put two and two together to understand what those symbols mean. It's about a feeling of good cheer. And yet it's not about a people who actually stand in desperate need of transformation from within their own hearts. They need life. They need righteousness that can only come from Jesus himself. So a babe in a manger becomes a greeting card. It becomes a sentimental thought rather than a sense of real need that a Savior like Him must come into the world to bring us salvation. So Jesus, sensing this kind of confusion even amongst the people there in His day, begins a series of teaching in parables. We've gone over this but I want to just remind you generally speaking a parable is a metaphor or simile drawn from nature or in common life and it arrests the hearer and it does so by a vividness or even a strangeness or a quirkiness and leaving the mind in sufficient doubt about its precise application to the point that one would walk away going wait a minute I need to understand that their stories to make people think about the realities of spiritual reality and leaving you to seek the Lord to understand more of what really is true in life rather than my own imagination and so verse 34 of our text notice that he tells Matthew tells us that Jesus said nothing without using these parables to instruct us And in verse 35, he outlines the purpose of these parables were to make clear the things that up until now were hidden. They were held in mystery since before the foundation of the world. The disciples were following Jesus, but they couldn't put it all together. And they had the luxury of sitting down with Jesus and going, what? What did these parables mean? What do you mean by this? They believed He was setting up a kingdom. But his kingdom, they believed, would be a kingdom that would come with shock and awe and blazing power. But it wasn't happening that way. It was confusing to them. So they really wrestled long and hard about, how do we believe Jesus? We see them wrestle along the way with questions like, are you the Messiah, or should we look for another? We want to find the real one. If you're not the real one, we're going to find the real one. And so Jesus takes him aside and he explains two of the four parables that we have read about so far. In chapter 13, verse 1, Matthew tells us that Jesus went out of the house that he was in, if you remember, at the end of chapter 12, and he goes outside and he goes public, as it were, and he gives the first of the four parables. And it was the parable of the soils. And it points to the reality that most people reject Jesus. It may not look like it, but most people outwardly reject Jesus. There are three soil types, and those three soil types will not produce fruit. Meaning that the kingdom has come, but the overwhelming truth is only very few people really do believe. So no big kingdom flashes of power and might. Instead, it's confusing to them because they see a rebellion of people and people refusing to submit. It is very much like what we see today, isn't it? Let's be honest. Here in Columbus, Ohio, very few people believe that Jesus is the only way to heaven. Very, very few people. Then in chapter 13, verse 36, we've gone to this already. but we see him go back into the house and it's there that Jesus explains to them the last of the four public parables we've talked about this already the parable the good seed in the weeds that we dealt with last time good seed and wicked seed stand side by side in this world and if the wicked seed has its way the kingdom of God will be destroyed or so it seems but it won't be destroyed because Jesus is King and good seed and wicked seed will stand side by side but God's kingdom will stand. Why? Because we're dealing with God here and His will. Now today we have two middle parables that are very short and really have no explanation given and these are tiny parables and they teach us what I think is something very very encouraging. Parables 1 and 4 teach us about competing events, good versus bad. And Jesus reigns through that. But now, parables two and three give an encouraging note. And the encouraging note is this, no matter how it looks, no matter how it looks, our Lord reigns. Let your heart rest in that this morning. Trust His work. Trust His timing. The point Jesus is teaching is belief, trust, Believing in Him both demands and enables faith in every level, every dimension, and every layer of life. This is the beauty of our Christ. The parable of the soil speaks to the scope of God's kingdom work in the gospel. It's the scope of it. It's His entire earth with all the soils possible. the parable of the good and bad seeds speaks of the duration of the kingdom and he says it will happen to the very end of the ages to the end of the end now we're going to look at two very more encouraging dimensions and this is the strength of his kingdom despite what it looks like and the effect of the kingdom even when you can't see it two cute little parables but massive truths so let's look at them first of all I want you to see in the first parable It's actually parable number two, all right? But the first parable we're looking at today, Christ reigns with strength despite what it looks like. He reigns with strength despite what it looks like. Look at verse 31. He put another parable, the kingdom of heaven is like a grain of mustard seed. Isn't it true that much of our own anxiety and fear arises from two words that come out of our deceitful hearts? that I would say are, what if? When things look very dark, it is very easy to slip into this world of what if. What if what God says really isn't the way it is? And what happens is difficult times come in, and what it does is if we're not thinking right, it begins to underscore that doubt. that it isn't really as God says it is. God really doesn't mean what he says. And that what if question has a follow-up phrase that says this, God doesn't mean what he says. I mean just look at our world. He can't mean this. You hear people say this all the time, I can't believe in a God who would say this. What are they saying? What if? I don't, I can't believe it. What if it's not right? What if it's not true? So here we have a story of a man who sows one grain of mustard seed in his field. Now our normal view of things, because of our own logic and reasoning, is so often a huge stumbling block to our faith in Christ. And this is what was going on in their hearts, and it's what often is going on in our hearts. God couldn't possibly mean He will take care of man's own sinfulness and wretched rebellion by the blood of a lamb. I mean, He can't possibly mean that. That's the strangest thing. And that lamb would be the symbol for one day a perfect lamb who would come. What is a perfect lamb anyways? And that lamb would come and take care of man's problem with sin once and for all. This is all they've heard about. This is all they've understood. And it seems just weird. It seems odd and maybe too easy. And so to illustrate this, Jesus uses a tiny, tiny seed to show us that there is no correlation whatsoever with the smallness of the seed to the strength and power that God has to deal once more for all of the wretchedness of sin. It seems so small. The smallness of the seed is not the measure of the ability of God to use whatever he wants to use for his kingdom work. Why? Because he reigns. He rules. He's the king. So notice a couple things. First of all, the kingdom of God may appear small or weak mustard seeds in scripture are used to indicate the smallness of something or the insignificance of something in Luke 17 and Matthew 17 we're not there yet when we get there Jesus will use the idea of a mustard seed to teach insignificance to teach of smallness and he says this if you have the faith the size of a mustard seed you'll say to that mountain move here and guess what it will move. Why? Not so much because of the greatness of your faith, but the object of your faith has that kind of power. I think it's worth stopping right here for a moment and just let us marinate on that for just a little bit. What is it that our devious rebellious souls so desperately want today in our world? What is it that you wrestle with every single day? Well we wrestle with desiring significance. We wrestle with wanting identity. We want to be great. We want to do great things. Well when was the last time we actually heard someone say, God please just let me be small. Just let me be insignificant. God grant me a special portion of insignificance. You see our feelings of self-worth and self-glory constantly take over and we become a people who desire in our own way to be something. We want to be thought of as a special and we want worthy honor to be put on us, don't we? But what is it that Christ is getting at? Is the great kingdom of God characteristic that Jesus points to in this little parable? Littleness. Insignificance. Now take another look. When it comes to the gospel of Jesus, it is most measurable in small ways, isn't it? You say what are you talking about? Well compare it with great philosophies or great ideologies in our world today. Doesn't it seem quite tiny comparatively speaking? I mean how does a story of a babe in a manger compare to say that of Platonism or thinking of the thinking of Socrates or the thinking of great Greek philosophy. spouting off big words and understanding things of the universe. Think of existentialism or rationalism, or we could go on and on, but doesn't history really teaches us, if we're really honest, that it has really been the story of Jesus that has most deeply moved men and women emotionally, intellectually, and delivered the most meaning to the point of life even to the point where humans have been willing to die for the silliness of this story. Why? Because it's not merely a story. It's about a kingdom. It's about the rule. It's about Jesus. When it comes to the gospel of Jesus, it looks insignificant. It looks small. The story of Jesus is a strange story, a small story, a really insignificant story beginning the likes of stables and donkeys and strange birth and lowly upbringing and relentless resistance to him that ends with Jesus dying on a forsaken cross by his own people, delivering him up to death. Then he chooses a group of crazy misfits in order to cause that story to go out into the world and grow and expand. It's just a strange story, unless, unless there is something else going on that needs good explanation. It's truly insignificant. It's truly a small thing, or is it? And this is the next point. the kingdom of God will have a large impact for all of life. Verse 32, look at what happens with the small, the smallest of seeds. Verse 32, it's the smallest of seeds, but when it is grown it is larger than all the garden plants and becomes a tree so that the birds of the air come and make nests in its branches. The smallness can fool you, folks. The insignificance of it can cause you to think it's not important. But don't be fooled. In our text, Jesus makes it clear that what it does is a seed that is supposed to do. In other words, the seed is thrown into the ground. One tiny seed thrown into the ground. And what does it do? It grows. It grows. And it's the smallest of all seeds. tiniest mustard seed grew into this large brush. And it says here that it's like a tree in size. The mustard Bush sometimes reached a height of 10 to 12 feet. It would have its branches that would spread out, and they were strong enough for birds to make nests on. And the kingdom of heaven is like this seed. At its beginning it was something very small and tiny, a little town of Bethlehem, in a little stable, something that no one would ever expect to grow into something so big as to turn a world upside down. And today what we find most glorious is something that the world will look at as foolish, crazy. This is what it's talking about. God uses the idea of a tree and its branches several times in scripture. I want you to take note of one particular Daniel chapter 4 where Nebuchadnezzar sees his own kingdom and he says it's like a tree in the midst of the earth. and it grew and became strong, and its top reached to heaven, and it was visible to the end of the whole earth, and the beasts of the field found shade under it, and the birds of the heavens lived in its branches, and all flesh was fed from it." So these are pictures that these folks would have known and understood. Seeds and trees would be a very familiar concept to these folks. But the strength of the kingdom message comes from the very core of Christ himself. And here's what I want you to understand. His power to conquer as king was not just in his right to rule on earth as the God-man that he is, but it is seen in the essential role of his priestly ministry as well. His power as king to bring deliverance for all things, they bought into. And they wanted it desperately. But his power as the priestly king that he really was, was something that they didn't look at. It was something that they missed. Because only Jesus could come and present himself to the world as a vicarious sacrifice. Only Jesus could die a substitutionary death under the judgment and the wrath of God. Only Jesus has this kind of power where he rules all things. But in his priestly work, he himself becomes the sacrifice. and He Himself takes and it's sufficient for all sin for humanity. Only Jesus can do this. His power is king to bring this deliverance. It's not just an earthly power, but it is an eternal power to atone for sin. That only Jesus, the God-man, can bring this to pass. And this is true impact. This is what turns the world upside down, because of the gospel. The farmer placed this seed there, and it grew. And it grew, and it brought mustard. But notice it also had this other impact. The real thing of it was not just the mustard, but the impact that it makes. The birds of the air nested in its branches. And when the gospel of the kingdom takes root amongst the people, it changes the way not only the believers live, but also it changes others around them. The promise to Abraham that was in his offspring that was given to them by God, he said, all the nations of the earth will be blessed by what I do in and through you. You see, this is the huge branch of the kingdom of God, the tree that brings salvation to the world. The gospel makes people kingdom citizens. And the influence of kingdom citizens in a community of darkness It begins to slow down the decay and the damage of sin that's so common in the world. The kingdom message then is something that I give my entire life to. I change the complete priority of my life. I give myself to. Why? Because it may be small, but it is powerful to make impact. It is the priority. And it's why we make hearing God's Word such a priority. My friend, you need to hear the preaching of the Word of God. True relevance of the Word of God may seem really small and not really significant in your life, and you personally must give yourself to it and not set it aside, but give yourself to it because it will have an effect in your heart and life. It's an amazing thing to me to watch people who struggle so many areas of their lives, who give the hearing of the Word of God such little priority. Everything else takes priority. I couldn't help but see that this past week while we were in Marseilles. Here there are three families in this vast and beautiful city of Marseilles. And this city seems so dark. And the task that God has given just three couples to come into a dark arena like that and to be just little blips of light. And you see this, yet faithfully living the gospel and speaking the gospel into that world is already having an effect. We went into one Moroccan restaurant that Todd and Carissa have developed a relationship with. These are people who know nothing of Jesus. But they've developed such a relationship with it that the owner of that restaurant has invited them to come with them to Morocco when they will take their child and take it back to the family and introduce that child to the family. I don't know that they'll be able to do that, but you begin to see and what that is is that's just one little area of light that here's an unusual family that comes in together as a family and they pray and they thank the Lord and their lives are filled with joy and it's just one little blip of light in one little restaurant in all of Marseilles and yet it's taken effect They've had them into their home. The other two couples spoke also of couples and people, an Egyptian couple in particular. They come and the only common thing they had was that they were both learning French. And so if one said a word that they didn't understand, the other one would try to say a word back. And if they didn't, they would just have to move on and press forward. We laugh at that, but we go, man, here's God at work using imperfect people with imperfect abilities to do what? To open the door to be light in darkness. Don't underestimate that, my friend. Don't underestimate the effect of the Word of God in changed lives that will have an effect in the communities that they live in. The work of the gospel seems small, but it is mighty to change the hearts of those who would hear. Now notice the second thing. Christ reigns. Christ's reign has eternal effectiveness. Will you see this with me? Look in verse 33. One sentence parable. I wish you could do those one sentence parables. A woman hides leaven in three measures of flour until it was all leavened. That's it. That's it. That's the parable. But here it's not the size that it is discussed, but it is the potency of the smallness over time. And this is beautiful. Here the leaven speaks of how the message of the gospel will have on the influence of his kingdom over time. And notice some key words that help us understand. First of all, the leaven is hidden. Do you see that in verse 33? She hid it. Leaven was a common ingredient in every kitchen. We have a bit of negative thought behind leaven and we sometimes think that leaven itself is evil. We think of this because we talk about the leaven of the Pharisees that Jesus will warn us about when we get to Matthew chapter 16 verses 6 and 11. But it illustrates not that leaven is particularly evil, but it illustrates the effects of something. The effects of evil, a little evil, the effect of a little evil will greatly damage what is being said or being taught. So when we see leaven, we must not think of it as an object, we must think of it as an effect or the influence that it has. And leaven affects and gives great influence to bread. I don't know if you are aware of that. It takes just a little bit of leaven that will explode dough and make it rise. But the thing of it is, it's not seen. It's hidden. You don't walk into, you can walk into and see a bunch of dough, and you can look at that and go, I don't know if leaven's in there or not. Why? Because it's hidden. It's inside. This lady takes it and hides it in three pecks of flour. And yet that leaven influences the bread enough and it makes bread that will feed about 40 people three meals a day for several days. And here's the point. It is the power of the gospel on a life that will change that person. Paul says the gospel is the power of God into salvation in Romans 1.16. And we think we need, often, to manufacture powerful events, we think we need professional presentations, flashing lights, the latest technology, and yet all we need in God's kingdom, work. is the message of the gospel and it is the message of the gospel that the Holy Spirit takes and takes it down deep inside the heart and it works to transform the heart. The gospel doesn't need to be noticed to be effective. It doesn't need to flash. It doesn't need to spark or have dazzling effects to work. Why? Because it's the gospel of Jesus Christ and it has power. But notice secondly, the leaven is powerfully effective. I love this. The wording is particular here. She took and hid in three pecks of flour. Now I'm not a bread maker, but one thing I've come to know is that if you take a little bit, and you put it in, it will have its effect. It does what it's supposed to do. And this lady intentionally placed leaven into a larger mass of dough. That's the idea of what is being said here. In this case, it's a bushel of dough. The leaven made contact with the dough and consequently the whole lump of dough was affected by the contact. Now the amount of bread that was produced was ridiculously large. The point here cannot be missed. Your life visually and your word verbally expressing the gospel message of repentance and faith in Christ is powerful and it will have an effect. Why? Because of the power that it is. It's not based on your ability to somehow do it right. to say it correctly. No, it is the power of God to salvation. Not you. It is that power. The effect of the gospel in your life at home. The truths of the gospel in your life at work. When no one is watching, when you think it doesn't matter, I will tell you what this passage is saying is, it does matter. Christ in you working His will and glory in your life matters, and it is powerfully effective, and it is the tool through which the kingdom is given out. Eleven is powerfully effective. Many of you were brought to Christ by the effective power of one person's word and one person's life. This is the message of the gospel. Thirdly, the leaven permeates it completely. It was all leaven. Do you see that in verse 33? It was all leaven. The characteristic that is important here is the permeating effect that leaven had. The entire batch of flour was permeated with leaven, but what we are dealing with here is the sense of time. It's over time. The smallness is seen, but the effect that is pointed to is the effect of a gospel life lived over a time makes impact. Now why is this important? Well time has a way of clarifying reality. Time has a way of clarifying reality. Anyone can build a facade, but time takes down those facades and exposes reality. The gospel in the heart of anyone is revealed over time. May I also say Self-righteousness, self-glory will be revealed over time if there's not been genuine conversion. What the people in Marseilles are seeing is an American family, three American families moving to an area. And many are watching what these people believe in and they're going to be watching over a period of time. And hopefully and prayerfully as God works his grace into their hearts and lives, that message will be preached. Now if you are an impatient baker, then you will not see the full effects of 11. And usually we are very impatient people. We want what we want, and we want it done now. Some of you are experiencing this even with your own children. You want them to be obedient. You want them to be Christ-seekers at age three. You want them to act like Christ-seekers at age fourteen. And you're going like, whoa, no, no, no, they have to learn just like you had to learn. And it takes place over a period of time. God's word in us. The gospel, doing what the gospel does over time has an effect. One of the things that Matthew says over and over and over, as he repeats, it must have rung in his ears that Jesus says, he that hath ears to hear, let him hear. So let us hear this morning, first of all, understand, little things matter. The gospel changes everything. Hearing the Word of God continues to change everything, changes our perspective, it changes how we view life, what we think we have We think we have to be somebody. We think we have to prove our significance. We think we have to make impact. That we have to, that we have to, that we have to. And what we don't understand is that that begins to bind us and constrict us so. But the gospel in his kingdom work may seem tiny and insignificant. And so we think, well, I must make it happen. We are called to a life of insignificance and smallness. We're called to a life of humility. We're called to a life of lowliness. Remember what John the Baptist said. He must increase. I get to decrease. And this is seen all throughout Scripture. This is not anything new. Remember the story of Gideon. God gave them 300 men to overthrow the Midianites. And God kept saying, no, less men, less men, less men. Smaller amounts, smaller amounts. Why? Because it was about the exploitation of the glory of God. All of life is all about God and not about our work and our efforts. And the smallness and the seeming significance of the gospel is no indication of the real power of the gospel. But notice too that the seeming largeness of sin and its effect on the world around us is no indication of the real reality of its coming doom. Don't be intimidated by evil. I fear in the days ahead that there's going to continue being this growing sense of godlessness even here in America to the point that we are going to lose our own way. Scripture says that even some of the elders miss it. They're lied to and they're deceived and I think it's coming if it's not already here. And we're seeing it in our world today. And the temptation is to become very intimidated by evil. Because it looks so big. It looks so powerful. And Jesus says, little mustard seed. And yet it owns the power. Because you're dealing with God. Our God reigns. Little things matter. And then hear this, little things over time matters. The gospel works effectively in small amounts over time. Small daily doses of repentance. Small minute by minute doses of simple trust in God. Not in your own understanding. not in your own ways, not in your own thinking, not in your own rationale. God doesn't use normal things. He uses things like mustard seeds to demonstrate power. He uses things like leaven to demonstrate effect. Those are not things that we would normally think, but that's the point. God is at work. The point here is the object of our faith, Jesus, He changes us, He lives in us, and our lives must speak of Him. Then we, by grace through faith, permeate the world with this same insignificant Christ. Why is it that the world wants to squash Jesus? Because they think it can't be that. And yet what should give us the courage and boldness is that we know it's that. The message brought by small insignificant people over time has huge and eternal impact in this kingdom. Understand something, the king rules over the scope of his gospel. The King rules over the duration to the ends of the ages. The King rules over the strength of His Gospel. And no matter what it looks like, He rules over the effect of His Gospel. And over time, we will all see His Kingdom rule. One day, every knee will bow, and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, alone. Alone. We, by His grace, get to do it today. But we must, in little doses, live in faith and repentance. And we can. Trust His work for you today. He reigns in His kingdom, and our task as kingdom citizens of is to permeate our world with the kingdom life and it's not finished until the kingdom of this world is radiantly displayed as the kingdom of our Christ. Your home should be the glory of Christ exposed as this is the kingdom of God. He rules. His reign is effect in our hearts and lives. You say, how do you know that? Because over time your life speaks of faith. and repentance. Turning from your own way and trusting Christ alone. Will you pray with me this morning. Father thank you for these tiny little parables. Little seeming insignificant sentences in a book that by many is looked at and despised and set aside and put up on shelves because they don't want to hear its truth. And in this we find a treasure trove of truth and ways in which we begin to understand Jesus. And it's not, Father, as we've seen today, it's not that you just rule with a rod of iron. You rule by yourself coming, taking upon yourself sin, and giving to those people who don't deserve it. You give them perfect righteousness. What joy has dawned! and what wonders to behold. Father may this Christmas season be times of great joy on earth in our own souls. Lord I pray for the hearts of the people here today. Father may the gospel truth even as a small and as insignificant as it seems may it demonstrate its great power by continuing to grow us into the image of Christ. causing us to be less like ourselves and more like Jesus. Father take these words this morning and as as incomplete as they might be Lord would you multiply it in the hearts of the hearers. Lord there are folks here today who need to to let the gospel rearrange their priorities in life. This is what life is all about. The kingdom of this world is the kingdom of our Christ. Father may our hearts find great joy and contentment and peace in all of this. We ask this for the sake of the name of Jesus that His name and His fame be spread throughout our communities, and that people will be brought to Christ because of the gospel ruling and reigning in our hearts every day Lord by Your grace. We pray and ask these things in Jesus' name, Amen.