I'm very pleased to be here today. It's been quite a few years since I've been back in Alexandria. It's been almost three years now. As Pastor Bob said, I grew up in this church. Starting in fourth grade, I started attending this church. My parents are Dr. Bill and Gigi Brown. They're somewhere back there. I don't see them right now. There they are, right over here. And my sister Linda and brother-in-law Derek and my nephew Lee are back here. It's always good to be back to see them and also to see many of you who I've grown to know and love over the years being here. I thank the Lord for the good memories I have being here and for the good memories and the relationships that we've built over the years. Today, Like, Pastor Bob also said that I'm in Taiwan working with Send International. Taiwan is a democratic society. It's not a country because nobody recognizes it. Very few countries recognize it as a country, but it is a democratic society. We have freedom to preach the gospel there. We're able to go into schools. We have schools that invite us to come in to tell the kids about Jesus, to public schools. So we quite often are able to go into the schools and share Christ with the kids, not just at Christmas and Easter, but every week my wife is in the schools telling kids about Jesus. So we have freedom. We thank the Lord for the freedom there to share the gospel. There's not a lot of people that are hungry to know Jesus, but they're open to listening. And we thank the Lord for the opportunities. We've been in Taiwan for 12 years now, and it's been quite a few years of difficulty. But we thank the Lord that we are there. We have no regrets about being there, that the Lord has called us there. And we're very glad that we could be there sharing the gospel with the Chinese. I want us to open our Bibles today to the New Testament and the book of Acts. In the book of Acts, in chapter 4, we're going to start reading in verse 8. I'm going to read to the two verse twenty two. That's Acts chapter four, verse eight through twenty two. We're going to alternate reading. I'm going to read the even verses and I'm going to have the congregation read the odd verses. So I assume that will be I'll be reading from the new international version. So that's Acts chapter four, verse eight through twenty two. And I'll start out reading the even and then each one of you that have a Bible here, read it, read out loud the odd verses. starting in verse eight, chapter four. Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them, rulers and elders of the people. Then know this you and all the people of Israel is by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified, but whom God raised from the dead, that this man stands before you healed. Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved. But since they could see the man who had been healed standing there with them, there was nothing they could say. What are we going to do with these men, they asked. Everybody living in Jerusalem knows they have done an outstanding miracle and we cannot deny it. Then they called them in again and commanded them not to speak or teach at all in the name of Jesus. For we cannot help speaking about what we have seen and heard. For the man who was miraculously healed was over 40 years old. I had a request this morning from somebody in the congregation, they wanted me to read a little bit from the Chinese Bible, from this passage, so I'm going to read just a little bit to let you feel a little bit what the frustrations of what it's like going to a new country and not understanding a word of what they're saying in the service. I'll start in verse eight and then I'll read through verse 12. At that time, Peter was filled with the Holy Spirit, and he said to them, O wise men and elders, if today, because of the kindness shown to the sick, you ask us how he was healed, All of you and the people of Israel should know that the man who stands before you has been healed because of the stone that you have chosen from the dead to resurrect him, the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth. He is the stone that your father-in-law abandoned. For many years when I went to Taiwan, I listened in the sermon and that's about how much I understood what you understand. But thank the Lord that he gave me the grace to be able to learn that language took many years. And it was by his grace. It wasn't by my abilities. About three and a half years ago in Houston, outside of the Second Baptist Church, there was a big protest. There were about 100 Hindus who lived in that area who went outside of the church and they began protesting. and what happened was on the Southern Baptist Convention had encouraged the believers to share the gospel with the Hindus and these Hindus that were living in Texas. They had heard about this and they were outraged. They had also heard that just previous to that, the Pope had gone to India and many of the Hindu religious leaders had encouraged the Pope not to tell the people that Jesus was the only way to salvation. Well, these people were outraged and angry whenever the Southern Baptist said we should share the gospel with them. One of the Hindu religious leaders, he quoted, and he said, any religion that condemns other people to hell who do not accept that faith or that person, that's a selfish, exclusionistic religion that promotes hatred. The Jews and the Muslims were also angered because the Southern Baptist had encouraged the believers to pray for these people, for the Muslims and the Jews that they knew. They were angry about that. Of course, the American newspaper journalist had picked up on this also, and they had also had some quotes in the paper. One of them was very outraged, and he said that this shows how intolerant evangelical Christians are. One of them even commented, he said, those conversion efforts that these people are promoting are reminiscent of the Middle Ages, whenever people would be burned at the stake for not changing their religion. Praying for a person or trying to to encourage them to embrace Jesus is nothing similar to to burning them at the state whenever they don't recant of their faith or put their faith in Jesus. Christianity has always been a religion. It's always been a faith where it's considered universal. God's heart has always been so that all peoples would come to him, that all peoples would confess Jesus Christ, that they would put their faith in him and worship him, and that all who claim Jesus Christ as their Lord would be saved. So today we want to look at this passage. I want us to look at the apostles. I want us to look at what they were to think about for a minute, what they were like before Jesus' death and resurrection, what they were like after him, the changes that they experienced. And then I want us to think about in our own lives, our mission, part of our mission that God has given us is to make Jesus known to other people. As you think about the apostles. In the early days, when they started teaching about Jesus, their lot was no different than today. There was persecution. There were people that are opposed to them, that threatened them. You see the early church leaders after Peter, in this passage, Peter and John had healed this guy and they were preaching about Jesus. And the religious leaders put him in jail. They were persecuting him. They were angry that they were preaching about Jesus. So, the apostles experienced opposition very early on in their ministry life after Jesus had ascended to heaven. But before they had experienced seeing Jesus being raised from the dead, they were a lot different people. As we think about the apostles, we think about, for example, in Luke 9, the apostles, they were very prideful. They were arguing over who was the greatest. They were all trying to decide who was going to become the greatest in their midst. And Jesus took a little child and he said to him, see this little one, he who is least among you is the greatest. So the apostles we know before Jesus' death and resurrection, they were prideful bunch of people. They were very unsure about Jesus' nature and his power. In Mark chapter 4, when they were in the boat and the storm came along, we see them waking Jesus up and saying, don't you care about us, Jesus? They were unsure about Jesus' power. They were unsure about his nature, his loving nature, that Jesus is going to protect us. They were an unsure bunch. They didn't believe in him. They didn't believe in his power, that he could help me, that he could save us. They were a fearful bunch. In Matthew 26, whenever Jesus was arrested, what happened to the to the apostles? Did they stick around him and protect him or to go with him? They all they all took off. And you remember, Peter, he had stood before Jesus and he said, Jesus, no matter what happens, I'm going to follow you. Even if you go to death, I'm going to follow you to death. I'm never going to leave you. Peter was adamant about that. But yet when the time came, he took off just like the rest of them. They were a fearful bunch of people. This was all before Jesus' crucifixion, his death. They were a fearful bunch. But what happened to them after his death and resurrection? We see that there was this this story here that we just read is a situation after Jesus had already been resurrected. There are different bunch. Now they're speaking with boldness. They had seen Jesus in his resurrected form. They had had heard all of his teachings. They had begun to to understand some of these things that he had prophesied. And they had just experienced Pentecost, where they've been filled with God's spirit. Now they had God's power inside of them. And now they will have the power to go out and preach. But what were their qualifications? What were the qualifications of these guys? If you think about their history, their background, most of them were fishermen. You had you had some tax collectors. Now, this group of people, if you think about their resume, what kind of person would I want to train up and to follow me? Do I want to get the brightest of the crop among their culture? Or do I choose a few lowly guys that have a background and with probably no education? Well, it looks like that's what Jesus did. He chose people who were unschooled. He chose people that weren't trained by the great rabbis of that culture. Because he knew that that was not going to be the thing that was going to change the world was that. As we look at their resumes, even the Pharisees and the Sadducees, they recognize in verse 13 here of chapter four of Acts, it says, whenever they saw the courage of Peter and John, they realized that they were unschooled. Now, the apostles had not been schooled by the accepted rabbis. They had been they had been schooled by an unacceptable rabbi, Jesus. Jesus was not recognized as a rabbi in their culture. They had been schooled by some guy that was not acceptable to them. So they were considered unschooled people. That was what they saw them as, unschooled people. They were ordinary people. Another version says that they were common people. They were common folk. So these were the people that Jesus chose were common folk. They were just like you and me. They were very normal people that had jobs where they probably had learned from their parents, their fathers. But the one thing that stood out to these guys, I think at the end of this verse, it says that they took note that these men had been with Jesus. I think if you look at their resume, the most significant thing that could have been put on their resume was that they had been with Jesus. They were common, unschooled people, but they had been with Jesus. Now, I want you to think about your resume now. What does my resume look like? Excuse me. I think I'm not used to this on my chest. What does my resume look like? Maybe you would think, man, I'm just like them. I'm unschooled. I've never been to seminary. I've never been to a famous Bible school or had a famous teacher, although we have a great teacher here. You're just a common folk. Maybe you feel like, I'm just like them. I struggle with the same things, struggling with my adequacy, whether God could use me to influence my friends, to influence my family, to influence the people at my workplace. Maybe your resume looks just like theirs. You have a very common background, a very common upbringing. Your schooling is not that exciting. But the important thing that these guys had going for them is that they had been with Jesus. And I think for them, the great things, the two things that changed them from being a person, people that were prideful, fearful and unsure about God was one, that they had been with Jesus for those years and two, that they were filled with God's spirit. They experienced Pentecost, they experienced God's filling of them. And so now they had power to go out and to share God's mercy and grace. I think if you think about it, one of the things that they also came to recognize that the life was not about them. One of the things that the first statement in the purpose driven life that he says is life is not about me. And that's a big thing that you and I need to to to learn is that life is not all about me. It's about Jesus. It's about God, about knowing him and following him. And that's one of the things that those disciples of his had to learn was that life was not just about them and what they were going to do and say and accomplish. And so I think that was one of the things that they learned, too, was that life is not all about me. It's about Jesus and what he's going to do for me. He's going to strengthen me. He's going to help me. And so I think that was as we see their lives, as we see here after they had been empowered by God and After Jesus had left them, they were a totally changed person. They were just like us. They were fearful. They struggled. They were afraid of persecution. They were afraid of what people would say about them. But they changed because of God's power in them. And they had walked with him and listened to him. And they were growing up in their faith. Do you feel like those disciples? Do you feel like your your resume looks similar to theirs? If it does, You got to take heart because you look at what God has done with that bunch of people and he can do the same thing with us. He can do the same thing with you and I. And he wants to use us. He wants to use us to bless other people. Why has God given us a mission and what mission do we have? I think that we have several different our mission in life involves several different things. But one of the things I want to focus on today as part of our mission is to make Jesus known to others, to bring Jesus to other people. We all have a mission. We all have that mission. God has given us that mission. If you put your faith in Jesus. Then you have that mission as being a part of God's family. It's it's your mission. It's obligatory. It's not something you can choose. It's not something you can say, I think I'll do that or I think I just don't want to do it. You're part of God's family. You have that mission to make Christ known. It's something that we all have, and if you ignore it. You know what that means? We're being disobedient to God. If we ignore our mission, if we ignore the responsibility we have to share Christ with others, we're being disobedient to God. In John 20, 20, it says Jesus was speaking to his disciples. He said, As the Father sent me, so I send you. That's the verse that Send International got their name from, the idea of sending. Jesus is sending every one of us to go out. As the father has sent me, so I send you. God is sending you to be a witness in your workplace, in your school, in your community. And he's sending us. What is our mission? How do we what are we communicating to people in Second Corinthians 518? So very clear what our what our mission is. Second Corinthians 518 says all this is from God. who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation. He has given us this ministry, this responsibility, this mission of reconciliation. We're bringing people to a relationship with God. That's what each one of us has a responsibility in. Why is it so important? Why is this mission so important to us? Why did God give us that mission? Do you think that God gave us that mission because He wanted us to stay busy? Do you think God just wants to keep us busy so we'll stay out of trouble? I got news for you. You can be busy and still get in lots of trouble. God didn't give us this mission to take Christ to other people and keep us busy, just always moving and doing things so that we'd stay out of trouble or just to stay busy. The reason that God has given us this mission is because, very simple, there's still people that don't know Jesus. There's still people that don't worship Him. And until there's nobody on earth that's worshiping God, we will have that mission, that responsibility to take Christ to other people. There are still people today who are worshiping and bowing down to Guan Yin, which is a Chinese god. There are still people that are bowing down to Fo, which is what they call Buddha. There are still people who are worshipping Matsu, which is the goddess of the sea. Many of the Chinese worship them. There are still people in India that bow down to the millions of gods that they have. Think 330 million different gods. There are still people that bow down to money, but that's their god. There are still people that bow down and worship power. They worship pleasure. There are many different kinds of gods that we could worship. And until these people begin to worship God, we still have a mission. You and I still have a responsibility. Where do we go? The Bible is very clear also in Acts chapter one, if you turn to Acts chapter one quickly with me. Acts chapter one was also another great commission passage where Jesus was speaking with his disciples before he went up to heaven. And Acts chapter one, verse eight. when the Holy Spirit comes on you and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth. This idea of Jerusalem, he wants us to be a witness in Jerusalem, in our own community. God wants you to be a witness in your community. So your mission involves reaching your community for Christ. He goes on to say, In all Judea, the whole country here, we've got a huge country of America, whereas your mission is to reach the whole country. He goes on to say in Samaria, within the country, but with the different groups of people within America, you have quite a large number of probably over 200 different nationalities of people that God has called you to reach. Every one of them need to hear the gospel. Every one of them need to know Jesus. And then the last one, he says, to the ends of the earth, to other nations. So we have those four different areas. You know what? He's called every one of us to reach every one of these. It's not just I'll just reach my community and forget about the rest of the country or the rest of the world or the rest of the Chinese or the Indians or the Muslims. He's called us to reach all of those. He's calling each one of you to reach all four of those. I think about just being in Taiwan. I feel like the Lord has given me a ministry to reach Chinese. But within that country, there's also other nationalities. There's there's aboriginals. So we've in the last few years, we've put the Lord's put on our hearts to to begin to minister to aboriginals within Taiwan. The aboriginals would be similar to the American Indians. There's about 500000 aboriginals in Taiwan and Many of them are very poor. There's high unemployment and high alcoholism rate among among that group there. They're very open to the gospel, but they're also struggling as families. So we've just this week we'll be going to a family will be going to an aboriginal church in the south of Taiwan to teach the teach English to their to their youth group who are getting ready for tests. But we've developed a relationship with this church that needs help from others because there's so few workers in the church. Well, the Lord loves those people. He loves the Chinese, but he loves those the minority peoples, too. And he wants us to always be open to to reaching those people around us that don't always have access to the gospel. They don't have a large number of witnesses in their community. We've also been taking groups into to Russia to reach the Buryat people. The Buryat people are a group of Mongolians. They're descendants of Mongolians that live in southern Russia. They were controlled by the Russian government for quite a long time. There's over 500,000 of them, and less than 1,000 Christians in that group. They have no indigenous churches among the Buryat people. And the Lord has given them an opportunity to minister to that minority tribe, too. It excites me to see what God is doing, and I've even brought some information here today for you that you're interested in some of these different areas. Please come up and get some of this information from me. But the Lord wants us to take notice of different peoples within our country. He wants us to recognize that he can use us in all these different areas. And he's called us to those. Well, how can we participate in this great commission? How can we participate in it? I think that not God has not called all people to be missionaries, but he's called every one of us to be world class Christians. He's called you and I, wherever we are, to be a world class Christian, to see how we can we can live in this world and have an impact in this world. And I think I like the way it was described in one book I read. He said the world class Christians are the only fully alive people that he described them as when they wake up in the morning. They're they're expecting what God's going to do in their lives. How do you feel in the morning when you wake up? Are you thinking, oh, Lord, it's another morning. I can't get up. I'm so tired. I got to go to work today. Are you feeling that way many times? I know I feel that way, but the Lord wants us to wake up with expectation. Say, Lord, how are you going to use me today? I expect you to use me today, Lord. In some way, I don't know what you're going to do, but I want you to use me today. These people are waking up and they're filled with joy because they know that God is going to lead them this day. That's what a world-class Christian, somebody that expects God to use them each day. They're looking forward to what God's going to do in their lives. That's the way I want to be. I don't want to just be waking up and say, oh Lord, I dread having to get up and go to work. get up and doing this and that, just so tired. I feel tired a lot of times. I know most of you who have little kids. This is a daily occurrence. You feel exhausted having to wake up after taking care of your kids. The Lord wants to strengthen you, and he wants to give you an expectant heart to use you in the lives of others. What is a world-class Christian? Somebody who is other-centered in their thinking. For example, in Philippians 2, verse 4, it says, Think merely of yourself, but also consider the needs of others. Consider the needs of others as more important than your own. That's Philippians 2, 4. To think about the needs of others. Consider the needs of others as more important than your own. Throughout the day, you're thinking about these people in your life. Their needs are important. I want to help them. I want to serve them. I want to minister to them. So a world-class Christian is somebody who is other-centered in their thinking. They're thinking about how they can bless other people. A world-class Christian is one who is global in their thinking. They're thinking about the world around, not just their little community, but they're thinking about the world around them. They're praying for laborers. Jesus said that we are to pray for the Lord of the harvest to send laborers out, to send laborers to other places. I just noticed the other day that Grace is praying for the persecuted church around the world. So that's good. That's what a world class Christian does is praying for people, for believers in other countries who are struggling, who may be persecuted, who are suffering for their faith. That's what we need to be doing. And that's good that you're doing that. God hears those prayers and he answers the prayers of believers as we're praying for for others within our family and other countries. So pray for others. Pray that God would cause the gospel to spread out rapidly in different areas and that there would be people to follow them up. A world-class Christian in their global thinking, they're getting involved. They're willing to get involved in short-term mission trips. I've noticed that Grace has also sent out teams to Russia, I think in the past to Mexico. They're constantly, a world-class Christian is saying, Lord, how can I be involved in this world? How can I take the gospel to other places that are not too familiar with me? Today, it's so easy to go to different places. Today you can be here and tomorrow morning you can be all the way around the world in a totally different place. It's very easy today to be around the world and to have an influence in different areas. And there's a lot of opportunities, a lot of groups that are taking people. There's no really big excuses why we can't consider that. I think it's great that Grace is is taking teams around the world to different places, exposing people to other cultures, to the needs that other people have for the gospel, the struggles that people have in hearing the gospel. And then lastly, a world class Christian is somebody who is eternal in their thinking. Hebrews, chapter 12, verse two. Hebrews, chapter 12, verse two, talks about this eternal mindset, this eternal thinking that we need to have. Hebrews chapter 12 verse 2 says, Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning the shame, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. We need to fix our eyes on Jesus. Every day, this is a world-class Christian. A follower of Jesus needs to have their eyes fixed on Jesus. You need to be living for eternity. You need to be saying, Lord, you've given you bless me with wealth. How am I going to use that now to spread the gospel? How am I going to use that to bless others and to serve and minister to others? So you're willing to use your money to serve the Lord. You're willing to use your time. Maybe it might mean that you're you're saying, Lord, I want to bring this friend in. I want to bring them into to a youth group or or some other thing, some other way that they could hear about you, that they could feel the love of Christ. You're willing to invest your time in caring for people. Maybe it means that you've got somebody that just accepted Christ and they need somebody to disciple. They need somebody to minister to and help them to grow up, to learn how to follow Christ. You're willing to invest your time in them. That's what eternal thinking is. Having the mindset that my life in this earth is very short and I want to invest my time and my finances and any skills that I have towards helping other people come to know Jesus. So what do you think about that protest with these Hindus that were demanding that the Christians in Houston stop insisting that Jesus is the only way? Do we listen to them? Do we do we agree to what they say because they don't like that? We're saying that they need to know Jesus. Should we stop telling them about Jesus? OK, most of you, almost all of you said no. If we listen to them and we stop, how are they going to hear about Jesus? How are those 1 billion Hindus going to hear about Jesus? How are the 1.2 billion Muslims going to hear about Jesus? There's over 500 million Buddhists. How are they going to hear about Jesus? We've got a host of idol worshippers that don't even fit into these groups. You've got people that are agnostics and atheists, how are they going to hear about Jesus? God loves these people. And now we need to ask ourselves, do we love them? I want to give you a few challenges, I want you to ask yourself these questions. God wants you to he wants to speak through you. They want you have a story. Each one of us, when we have met Christ and walk with him, we have a story and he wants to to use you to share your story to the people around you. So as you think about your testimony, about your experiences with with Jesus, as you walk with him, how he saved you, who does God want you to share your story with this week? I want you to think about that a minute. Who is the Lord been impressing you that I need to tell my story about how I met Christ? Who is he putting on your heart to tell and let's trust God this week that he would give you an opportunity to tell them about your relationship with Christ or what he's done for you, who he is. I want to ask you, what's keeping you from fulfilling your mission? What's keeping you from fulfilling this mission? Maybe it's feelings of inadequacy. You feel like I don't have the background or the training or the I'm just a normal person. Maybe there's fear that you have about persecution or the people. People will threaten me if I tell them about Jesus. Maybe there's things in your life, maybe there's sins from the past, the failures you've had in your life, how you failed God. Maybe these things are just eating you up on the inside. Well, God wants you to bring those things to him. And to trust him that he will help you to overcome these fears, feelings of inadequacy, the memories of failures from the past. I want you to bring those to him and to help you to overcome these things so that he will use you greatly, just like all of the disciples have these these nagging feelings with them, how they betrayed the Lord, left him. They were unsure and they were prideful. Well, they sure needed God's help. I want to ask you, have you ever Honestly, ask God, God. Do you want you calling me to be a cross-cultural missionary? He's not calling everybody, but we need to be honest with him and ask him, Lord, are you calling me to be that person that leaves my country, my home, my family, and goes to to live among another people and to share Christ with them? Or maybe you need to ask yourself, am I willing to let my children go? If God were to call my child to go, Lord, I would let you have him. Because, Lord, he belongs to you. You gave him to me, and now I offer him back to you. That's the hardest thing, by the way, for the Chinese to think about letting their kid, their child become a Christian worker, because they all want their children to have nice jobs and, of course, with the high pay. So that's a big challenge for the Chinese is to think about letting their children. It's not just difficult for the Americans. It's very difficult for the Chinese to think about letting their kids go into Christian ministry. What steps the last question I want to ask you before we close now, what steps can I take to go on a short term mission trip within the next year? Maybe there's an opportunity within this next year for for some of you to go on a short term mission trip. What steps do you need to take to begin to prepare for that or to think about going on that? Am I willing to let God use me even if it's just in my vacation time to serve him in some area through this church or through an organization? I want to close lastly with thanking the church for the many years that you've been supporting us, supporting God's work in Taiwan, and supporting us as a family in Taiwan. Thank you for your prayers. I know that you've been praying for us. We have felt God's strength in us, and I thank you for the ways that you remember us and pray for us. And it's a blessing to us. We know that we believe that we cannot be there and continue to the difficulties we've been through without God's people here praying for us. And that's a big part of our mission is to pray for for the family of God all around the world. And we thank you very much for your prayers for us. Let's close in prayer now. Our heavenly father, we thank you for your goodness. Lord, we believe that you are a God who is calling us every day. Into this mission that you've given us, part of the mission that you've given us is to to share Christ. Lord, thank you that you can take people who are unschooled, who are ordinary or common, and you can do great things from in our lives. Lord, we confess that we need to recognize, Lord, that it's not about us. This life is not all about us, Lord, that That we need to to have you to help us to overcome the fears, the pride, the uncertainties that we experience. We need your spirit to fill us. We need your power, Lord, if we're going to do the things that you call us to do. And Lord, we believe that by your power, by your leading, that you can use us as a church, that you can use us as individuals to lead others to a relationship to you, that you can use us to bless our families, to bless our workplace, to bless our community. Lord, we believe you want to do that. You want to to make your name known, your glory known in this community and all throughout the world through this church. I pray that you would bless this church, that you would continue to bless it with a great faith, that you would bless this church with believers who who are obedient to you, who are loving of each other, who want to serve you and who are willing to to be open to anything that you would call them to do. Pray that you would bless the Alpha courses that they're doing here. Bless the men's fellowship, the women's fellowships. Bless the youth group as they meet together and as they discuss and seek to encourage each other following you. Thank you for your goodness, Lord. We believe that you are good and that you are the only certain thing in our lives that we can lean on and trust in. You're a good God and we need you. We love you. We confess that, Lord, we need to be a people that are ready daily to open our mouths, to use our hands and our feet to serve you. Because you are worthy, you are honorable, you are a good God, and people need to know you and worship you. Thank you for your goodness to us today. It's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen.