John chapter 15, if you'll turn there with me. John chapter number 15. And I'll tell you why here in just a moment. You did a great job this morning as you were welcoming me in and such, and you didn't notice something about me that was kind of a sermon illustration. But because you did such a good job, I'm gonna have to point it out. And if that makes you curious, I'm glad, all right? John chapter 15, I don't know if you're normally accustomed to standing when I read the passage, but if you are physically able to do so, I'd like to ask you to do so if you don't mind this morning. John chapter 15. I won't read very many verses, this is a familiar passage to many of us, but he says this, John 15 verse number one, I am the true vine, and my father is the husbandman. Every branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away, and every branch that beareth fruit he purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit. Now ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you. Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine, no more can ye, except ye abide in me. Here we go. I am the vine, ye are the branches. He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit. For without me, I want you to read the next three, next four words. Without me, what? Ye can do nothing. Dear Lord, I pray you'd help me as I preach. Fill me with your spirit. Thank you for these folks. Lord, I pray you'd bless this church. Bless us now in these minutes we have remaining. In Jesus' name I pray, amen. Thank you, you may be seated. When I was a little kid, I remember at this point in our lives, we actually would watch some movies occasionally on television. Now, I've got to qualify that a little bit because back in the day, they actually used to edit and censor some things that they just let play nowadays on network television. So I have to say that with a little bit of a caveat, but I remember in 1982, I was five years old, so if you wanna do the math, figure out how old I am, you can do that, all right? But I remember on the Sunday night, a movie after church, they had a movie on that was titled Superman. And that started a lifelong love of the superhero character, Superman. I would go to the library, and I would, they had some old Superman comic books, and I would, I almost said rent, but you know, you don't really rent it, but I would take out these anthologies of Superman comics, and I would watch, I would read those, and I just thought, Superman was so awesome, and still to this day, when you start playing, dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun, I'll go crazy, that's my favorite orchestral piece of all time, all right? The John Williams Superman theme. Well, I wanted to point out something here today. I took a risk. I've only ever done this one other time and it was at camp. But this morning, you guys did such a wonderful job. Many of you didn't even notice Underneath my dress shirt is a Superman costume. And it's supposed to kind of show through the shirt, right? But none of you, I don't think, noticed it. Or if you did, you were too kind to think, wow, this guy's insane. He is wearing a Superman shirt underneath his dress shirt. What are we in for? That's kind of what I was going for. But you all were so nice, you didn't even notice it. So I have to point it out. And those of you who are only listening to audio, I am, yes, literally wearing a Superman t-shirt underneath my white dress shirt. Because the title of my message, it's not very long, just a few points and boom, we'll have something to meditate on. But I title it this, Super Christian. Super Christian. I've even got my Clark Kent glasses on. All right, you notice that, right? I don't actually preach with them on, okay, so I'm gonna take them off. But super Christian. Jesus here is saying, without me ye can do nothing. I think sometimes in our lives, we get to the point where we think that we can be self-sufficient. But I wanna point out something to you that we already know, but sometimes we need to be reminded, there's no such thing as super Christian. I know this, and this is what sets me apart from some fans. I realize Superman is made up, right? I have watched some Star Trek, but I don't think it's real. I have seen some Star Wars films. Again, I don't mean to offend anybody. You go according with what God has told you, and set your standards accordingly, et cetera. I haven't watched all of everything, but I have watched some Star Wars. Unlike, people in, I can't remember if it was New Zealand or England, I can't remember which one, but they actually had to add, if they were, excuse me, if they were to base the religions on how many people adhere to them, they would have had to add the force as a religion on their census. That to me is not only crazy, but gives me a burden to see people come know the truth, right? By the way, choir did a fantastic job on that song, and I enjoyed that very much. Thank you for your hard work on that, that the world may know, amen? But there are people who would put on there, I know that I might watch a movie, but it's made up. Listen, there are people, sometimes there are Christians, you and me, sometimes we think there is a such thing as super Christian. Picture this, a Christian in a cape, soaring through the sky, faster than a speeding prayer. More powerful than a potluck casserole. Able to leap tall doubts in a single bound. We've all got this image, I think, in our head of super Christian in our lives in some way. Someone who's got their faith dialed up to 11. And they're just, wow, super Christian. I wish I could be like that, super Christian. A lot of times in my life, I feel a lot more like Clark Kent. Kind of stumbling around a little bit. But can I give you five observations? And we'll be done. Five observations, we'll go fairly quickly. But number one, I want you to see there's strength in vulnerability. There's strength in vulnerability. You see, friends, we need to bust the myth that a super Christian is someone who's bulletproof and nothing hurts them and nothing, you know, everything bounces off of them. What's the shortest verse in the Bible? Anyone remember it? Jesus wept. You know where he is when he weeps? He's actually at the grave, at the tomb of Lazarus. And just a few moments later, what's he gonna do? He's gonna say, Lazarus, come forth. Oh, wouldn't that have been awesome to have been there? To see Lazarus, he's all wrapped in grave clothes, right? But to see him come out of the tomb, why? Because Jesus said so. What does Jesus do before then? Here is God in the flesh, 100% God, 100% man. The Bible says he allowed himself to feel what we felt. And he takes a moment and he weeps. Listen, we don't have time, we don't have a need for a macho Christianity. We need real masculinity. Please don't get me wrong. That's a whole nother message in one sense. We need real men of God who depend on him. Remember our key verse here. You've gotta abide in Christ. That doesn't mean that we're invulnerable in the sense that, well, we just don't care what anyone thinks. No. It's not about never breaking. It's about trusting God when our life seems to be cracking. If there was anyone who had an excuse to be called super Christian, I think it would have been Paul, right? I mean, Paul, incredible mind. I mean, he was a Pharisee of the Pharisees and all this. He becomes saved and he witnesses and God uses him to really usher in the age of grace. But what does he say? I'm the chief of sinners. What does he say? There was given unto me a what? A thorn in the flesh. Listen, why did God give Paul that thorn? To remind him he wasn't a super Christian, right? Yeah, they didn't have Superman around back then, but it's the same thing, right? To keep him humble. If you look at that passage, lest I should be exalted above measure. God gave me a thorn in the flesh. Listen, brothers and sisters this morning, sometimes God will allow us to go through difficulty to remind us to abide in Him. How about you this morning? Is there something in your life the Lord has allowed into your heart, into your mind, into your soul? Maybe it's a financial difficulty. That can humble us really quickly, right? I won't go through the thorn in the flesh that our car is sometimes. Because I don't want to have to preach on bitterness tonight. It's supposed to be a concert tonight, right? Okay. I'm kidding around. But the Lord reminds me on a regular basis, listen, listen, you are not super Christian. This vulnerability that God brings into our lives There's strength in vulnerability. Real heroes don't hide their scars. They let them become part of their story. When I am weak, then am I strong. Stop thinking and acting like you're invulnerable. By the way, this isn't a point that I wrote down, but I just thought of it now. If you think you're invulnerable, you also will tend to set yourself up for situations you shouldn't be in. Well, I'm invulnerable, nothing can happen to me. You can put yourself into some temptations where you shouldn't be because you think you're invulnerable. Listen, none of us are super Christian. There's strength in vulnerability. Number two, an observation here this morning. The myth of the lone hero. The myth of the lone hero. The lone wolf, the one that can do it all himself and kind of rides off into the sunset. My dad, if I remember correctly, by the way, I think my parents are watching this morning from their home in Michigan. And by the way, the reason I'm a Spartan fan is my mom and dad met there and my dad got saved there. It's not a Christian university, just so you know, I'm aware of that. Okay. but I come by it, you know, honestly, you know, but I am very grateful for my dad's influence on my life. His original hero, correct me later on, dad, if I'm wrong, but I believe it was Zorro. And they used to have the Zorro, the early Zorro show, I guess there's a new one, I'm not recommending, I haven't seen it, I don't know, okay, but they had Zorro and Lone Ranger. How many of you know what I'm talking about? I'm talking about the original TV, maybe even in black and white, some of them. Right? And that was also back in the day when a hero could be upright and moral and have character qualities to them. In fact, the man who played the part of the Lone Ranger, Clayton Moore, if I remember correctly, he took it so seriously that he wanted to exemplify the character qualities in real life that he did on the screen and tried to do that his entire life. Neither here nor there. What I'm trying to say is that that's a wonderful thing to look up to on television or a hero such like that, but in reality, it doesn't work that way. Because none of us live to ourselves, and what? None of us die to ourselves. We're part of the body of Christ where we're not all the eye, we're not all the ear, we're not all the great looking parts, right? Some of us are the feet. Feet get dirty, but they get some work done. Ecclesiastes chapter four, verse 12 is a good one. If some of you are taking notes, we won't turn there, but Acts chapter two, this is a topical message, all right? We're textual, we're all kinds of passages we're going to here, we're flying to, get it? All right, some of you are following me, okay. Acts chapter two talks about they were all together in one accord. That's not talking about a car model. How did they all fit in an accord? No. Talking about they were all together in one spirit and one purpose. There wasn't any lone wolves who were out there just kind of doing their own thing. Listen, you ought to be suspicious of someone who doesn't want accountability. And what we're seeing today in religious circles, I hesitate to call them all Christian, because some of them really don't have the truth. But if I could use that term loosely, Christian circles, we're seeing a lot, well, even in conservative circles and Bible-believing circles, sometimes we see people who get off on a tangent and they don't want accountability. That's a red flag. None of us is above that. In fact, that's why we have the local church. My family, we are members of Calvary Baptist Church in Midland, Michigan. And if I ever started veering off doctrinally or something was going wrong, someone could go to my home church, out of which I was ordained, and I grew up there since nursery. But that's where my spiritual accountability is. If there's something going on that needs to be drawn attention to, that's where you would go. I'm not out on my own in the sense of, excuse me. Thank you, we'll edit that out. I'm not out on my own, right? There's a spiritual accountability there. None of us ought to be the lone hero. By the way, remember Elijah? Elijah felt like he was alone in success, but he wasn't. In fact, if you study that story out, there are hundreds of prophets that he knew that were still, but I only, I only, listen, if you're alone in success, you're gonna feel alone in failure. That's a whole nother message there, but let's keep going, all right? Let's keep going here. There's strength and vulnerability. The myth of the lone hero, I also wanna talk about number three, the cape versus the cross. The cape versus the cross. One of the coolest things about Superman is his cape. I just always thought that was so cool, you know? And he would stand there. Of course, I learned in about 9th, 10th grade that I'd never be able to really play Superman because I stopped growing and, you know, just didn't have the height. You can hide some in boots, but, you know, you can't be 6'4", 6'3", like Christopher Reeve was in the original movie and all this. But the cape, oh, man, that cape just made the outfit. I used to take red bathroom towels. We hardly had any red bathroom towels. They were pink. But you know, you make do with what you have. I was staying at a house where I was being watched by Mrs. Forbes. And I sang that from the hometown crowd there, my parents watching. And I said, yeah, I'm going to be like Superman. And they had a second floor. And I told their daughter, a few years younger than me, yeah, I'm gonna fly. I'm gonna fly out the window. So I put on a towel that they had, tied it around my neck. It's terrible. And I jumped out the window. I'm not lying to you. Praise the Lord, there was a brush thorn bush directly underneath the window, which I landed in. And I mean, it hurt, but it broke my fall. Because guess what? I can't fly! Now, I don't know what our glorified, this is extra, 32nd Rabbit Trail, are you ready? 32nd Rabbit Trail. I don't know what our glorified bodies are gonna be like. I know that we will be like Jesus, I'm serious, right? He could just appear, he could go through walls and all that, right? I wonder, will it be allowed? Will I be able to kind of maybe fly a little bit and then, you know, fulfill that idea? There is a, what's that? We'll see the rapture, exactly, amen! It's just gonna be over so quickly. It's twinkling of an eye. And the other thing is, I'm scared of heights. So if I did have the ability to fly, I'd have to fly like 10 feet off the ground everywhere. I'd like follow the roads. Okay, now I am off track. But the cape versus the cross, the cape symbolizes ultimate freedom. Fly wherever you want, do whatever you want, right? Jesus actually calls us to the cross in Mark chapter 10 verse 45. Jesus' way, spiritual strength, isn't about dominating or doing whatever you want. It's about laying down your life. In fact, what is real love? Real love limits my own liberty. Jesus said, if you wanna be my disciple, you've gotta take up your cross. Paul said, I die daily. It's not about the cape. It's about the cross. You know what, friends, this morning, I asked myself this question. When's the last time we had to do something? When's the last time you had to face something where you had to die to yourself? Self doesn't like to die. Number four, the quiet courage of yes. I don't want to stretch the illustration too far. I sense the only reason I risked doing this in the first place is I got to know your pastor, and I figure that you as a church have to have a sense of humor. Right? I mean, in a good way. And I've been proven right. Because I wouldn't normally show up at church with a Superman t-shirt, okay? But I don't want to push the illustration too far, because that's all it is. It's just something to help us remember. But this, Superman can do all kinds of miraculous things, right? Stop bullets, fly, you know, heat vision, you know, cold, what's that, Arctic breath, where he can freeze a whole lake and then pick up the lake and then, you know, make it rain somewhere. We would call those miraculous things, right? You know, so much of our Christian life isn't about the miraculous. Now, we're saved, that's miraculous. The Holy Spirit dwells inside us, that's miraculous. And I still believe, even though I don't believe there are the gifts of healing, I still believe God heals. I don't believe someone is given a special gift of miracles, I still believe God does miracles. So let's get that straight, okay? But how much of our life is lived in the realm of the miraculous where it looks, and it's obviously miraculous? Not very much. In fact, if you think of Luke chapter one, verse 38, where Mary quietly and calmly, in a miraculous situation, actually, says, yes, I'll be that mother of the Messiah. Well, that was a miraculous thing, but then what would follow that? A lot of just normal and then difficult living, right? Some of us, we wanna live on that mountaintop. We wanna live constantly on the spiritual high. Listen, the spiritual highs aren't bad. It's not wrong to have kind of a climactic experience, but here's the problem that happens a lot of times with some of our Pentecostal brothers and sisters. Some of them, if you've got the truth, and you're saved, you're brother or sister in Christ, okay? You understand that? When you go to heaven, there's not gonna be like the Baptist section, and then the Bible church section, and all that stuff, right? I know some Pentecostals who know the Lord and we're wrong, they're wrong on the doctrine of the, I almost said that backwards. They'll find out in heaven that we were right, okay. But if you follow me, what tends to happen is chasing an emotional high. Listen, most of life is just lived out in faithfulness. Think of Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane. Yes, an angel appeared to him, strengthening him, but he still had to go through the cross. You know, at the judgment seat, God's not gonna ask us about how many demons did you cast out? How many miraculous things over here did I do through you? It's not gonna be about that. It's gonna be well done, thou good and what? Faithful servant. Quiet courage of just saying, yes, Lord, I yield to you. If you do something miraculous, it's gonna be awesome. But if you want me to just be faithful, I'll do that too. One more observation and we'll be done. What about this? Grace over grit. Grace over grit, what do I mean by this? Well, Ephesians chapter two verses eight and nine reminds us, for by grace are you saved through faith, right? Not of yourself, and that, not of yourselves. This kind of unique approach to a message is, the whole point of it is to remind us that it's not about us. It's not about what we bring to the table. It's about abiding in Christ and relying on his grace. There are several different definitions of grace, and you probably have one that you like the best, and different ones kind of reflect different facets of the beautiful jewel that is grace. But one of my favorite definitions of grace is simply this. I'm gonna even make it shorter than what I was going to. God's enablement. God's enablement. Now friends, I don't wanna confuse you. I'm not one of these folks that believes everything is robotic and God has said everything, you know, you don't have any free will and all that stuff. I'm not a Calvinist. The last time I understood how the free will of man interacted with the sovereignty of God, I was a sophomore in Bible college. because it's one of those topics that, you know, sophomore in Bible college, you have it solved in the men's dorm. The older I get, the more I realize that that's just something I don't understand. But I will tell you this, I'm not saved because of how wonderful I am. As pastor was testifying here even this morning, we're saved by how wonderful he is. And he gives us that grace, but it's not just saving grace is my point. It's also living grace. because we're supposed to, every day, rely on the power of the Holy Spirit. That is Christ in you, the hope of glory, and he gives us the power to live the Christian life. That is grace in action. It's not about gritting our teeth and just, well, I might be miserable, but I'll just get through another day. That's not what God wants for us. He wants us to be more than conquerors through him. How many of you remember that John W. Peterson song? We are more than conquerors. Anyone remember that one? Yeah, a few of you. I always loved that song. By the way, I appreciate some of the classic songs you're singing here at church. I'm not against new music. I created it myself, but it's nice to go back and hear these hymns being sung enthusiastically. You're to be commended. But grace over grit, the point, the super part, isn't what you do. The super part is what he brings. Supernatural, right? There's truly no such thing as a super Christian. You would think that Paul would have been it, if anyone. But he called himself the chief of sinners. If that's true of Paul, what must be true of us? Let's lay to rest this myth that we can become this superhero of a Christian. Listen, we need to rely on Christ living through us. And you know what, friends, as we close here this morning, in a moment I'll turn it over to Pastor. I don't know what you normally do on Sunday mornings. I'll give it to Pastor to close as he sees fit this morning. But can I ask you these two simple questions? Maybe you're a Christian and you think to yourself, you know, I've been trying to do it on my own. Well, you got super Christian syndrome. No, there's no such thing as super Christian. Maybe it's time, maybe there's a little pride there. Listen, I'm not against taking responsibility, absolutely not. And let each bear his own burden, right? We know that's scriptural. But then, very closely to it, let each bear each other's burdens. What does that mean? Well, maybe you've been on your own, you think, you know what? I need to have accountability, or I need to rely on the Lord instead of myself. Maybe here this morning, you don't know Jesus as your Savior in the first place. Oh, friend, that's like first base. You can't go around the bases. You can't have a productive Christian life and see God's power in your life until you trust Him with salvation, trust Him with your eternal soul. And so, friend, if that's you, whether you're here in this building or if you're watching by way of live stream or even the playback, we'd love to show you from God's Word. You don't have to worry about trying to make it on your own, because guess what? You'll fail. But if you'll turn to Christ, he'll save you and he'll empower you to live the Christian life. I'd like every head bowed, every eye closed this morning. Thank you so much for listening so well at this. And I trust no one's been offended by my Superman references this morning, because it's just about Trying to get a mental picture across. How about you, Fred? Maybe you're here this morning and say, Brother Ben, I am a Christian. I know I'm saved. but I've been doing it on my own. I've been trying to live the Christian life kind of like a super Christian, and I needed that this morning. Would you pray for me? I'm not gonna point you out and embarrass you, but if that's you, would you just slip your hand up with me? Yes, amen, yes, amen, yes, amen. I see those folks of all ages, amen. Anyone else who say, that was me. I've been kind of in Christian, super Christian mode, but I wanna rely on the Lord. Anyone else this morning? If you're here this morning, say, Brother Ben, yes, thank you, I see that. You'd say, Brother Ben, I'm not yet a Christian, but I want to be one. I'm not yet a Christian, but I want to be one. Would you let me pray for you? My prayer's not gonna save you, but I'd like to pray that the Lord would give you understanding. If that's you with no one looking around, would you simply lift your hand up, say, that's me, Brother Ben. Would you pray for me? I'm not yet saved. Yes, I see that hand. Anyone else this morning, I'm not yet saved, but I want to be. Dear Lord, I thank you for the truth of your word. I thank for hands that were lifted, folks who are Christian like myself, and oh Lord, how easy it is to switch into super Christian mode when you want us to be reliant on you. Then we'll see your results instead of ours. Lord, I also thank you for a hand that was lifted this morning and said they don't know you as Savior, but they want to. Lord, would you open up their spiritual understanding so they can trust you, that they can realize that they're a sinner. God's word says all have sinned, they come short of the glory of God, and that those wages, those payment, the salary for sin is eternal death and a terrible place called hell. But the Father, that's you, sent the Son, that's Jesus Christ, to be the Savior of the world, and that includes them. And Lord, if they will trust you, they can be saved this morning. We leave these things in your hands, in Jesus' name I pray. Pastor, you come. Let's all stand together. Your heart this morning, and the most important thing that we want God to speak to people's hearts about is the issue of salvation. All of us have sinned, and if you've never come to Christ by way of believing on Him and receiving Him as your Savior, you can do that today. And there could be somebody here today, and however this message spoke to you, You know if the lord's worked in your heart this invitation time to time for you to come and pray at this altar You may lay something before the lord. You may be going through a difficulty today use the altar for what it's here for As we sing the first verse of cleanse me. Oh god Won't you come today the lord spoke to your heart come on Come to church Say, Pastor, I'm going through something that's difficult. Oh, Savior, know my thoughts, I pray. See if there be some way, way, way, and set me free. I praise thee, Lord, for cleansing me from sin. God's Word has made me good within. Fill me with fire where once I worked with shame. Grant my desire to magnify thy name. And if you take a moment, just bow your head and pray quietly where you are. And friend, if you don't know the Lord and you're a little nervous to come down front, that's okay. We'll hang out after the service a little bit. You can talk to us then. We'd love to share with you from God's word, how you can know your sins are forgiven. You're on your way to heaven. Some are still praying. Let's give them that privacy and let's just pray in our own hearts and minds and pastor will close us as he sees fit. And all of God's people said Amen. Ms. Carol Ann has come today and she's told me that she was wanting to make it public, that she's rededicating her life to the Lord. And she was baptized when she was 12, but doesn't believe that she was saved at that point. And she's asked me if I would be willing to rebaptize her because she got saved after she was baptized. You know, the order, the progression of things biblically is first you get saved, then you get baptized. And if you were baptized out of order, Well, then you need to make that right and that's what she's come expressing the desire to do If you agree with her wanting to get baptized, uh, won't you just say amen? Aren't you thankful and you pray for miss caroline and her testimony to me was very she said yesterday at this lady's conference She once again humbled herself before the lord and rededicated her life to the lord. That's a wonderful step miss caroline You know, you know if you're, you know, uh unfamiliar with this kind of, you know Comparing the christian life to superman. I understood everything he said And uh, you know, i've never been a superman guy, but I was the lone ranger type of guy Now, I don't know if I've ever told you this story before, but my brother and I, I had an older brother, and my dad had a 10-foot sheet metal slide in the backyard when we were growing up. And me and my brother watched that Lone Ranger all the time, and we feigned ourselves to be the Lone Ranger. And my dad had a rope in the garage. And we tied what we thought was a rope, you know, like we were Texans and we're going to lasso somebody on the top of that slide. It was a swinging slide. And so every time I went down the slide, I'd put my hands up like this and try to, if that rope was going to catch any part of me, it was going to hit my wrists. Now, my brother's three years older than me, and he kept on going down the slide like, you'll never get me, you'll never get me. And so I threw that rope right when he was going down. And I mean, it hit his chest and cinched right up. I said, yes. Well, my brother's dying on the slide. I mean, he was going bang, bang, bang. He had a rope burn around his neck. I had to come down off the slide and lift him up. And he got the rope from around his neck. He had a big rope burn around his neck. And so as he's on his way trying to, good gasping for breath I was saying, don't tell mom, don't tell mom, don't tell mom, don't tell mom. And you know what my brother did when he saw my mother? He sealed my fate. He fainted. You know what that meant? That means that I was going to take a whooping. I'm sorry. My mother spanked me with a wiffle ball bat that day. Broke my wiffle ball bat. deserved it. But anyway, he's preaching about Superman. I thought, does Superman really have that ability to freeze somebody with his breath? And I asked Jacob and he confirmed that that's true. Now some of you all, I mean you young people your breath is almost that bad. So just let me encourage you start brushing them teeth and using the mouthwash son Cuz y'all are close to Superman, but I learned something something new today and brother Ben did you know, we I do enjoy humor But I'll tell you what, I love the Lord Jesus Christ. My heart's been encouraged today. The songs lifted my soul, sitting there thinking about being complete in the Lord. And Brother Jacob, thank you for playing that song for us today. It touched my heart. I love to come to the Lord's house and just remember what the Lord's done for us. And I really believe we've had good services today and we have a good spirit here. If you're visiting here, please know that you're welcome and that we care about your soul. And we'll have services tonight, and please bring people back with you. You know, let's fill this house for the glory of God. And I'll ask Brother Ben to go back to his table in the back, and he's got a lot of CDs back there. Please avail yourself to some of that good Christian music. And they'll have a way for you to pay for those back there. But if you aren't doing anything this evening, and you'd be willing to come back to church tonight for a concert. It'll be a different Sunday night service. We'll have lots of music. We'll have a lot of good fellowship tonight. And the Eversons will be back with us. And please be back tonight at 6 o'clock. And let's bring our friends, our neighbors, and wherever you go out today, make sure that Make sure you're inviting people to come. Brother John, you had your hand up? Choir practice 445. You got your new choral books for the upcoming Easter cantata. How many of you are excited about the Easter cantata? If you're a part of the choir, how many of you are going to listen to those songs over and over again? All right. Yeah, I got some superheroes in the house today had people raising the roof and the whole thing get that cape on And so, you know if you have a superhero costume, we got a guy that plays the Grinch around here Maybe I'll show up as the Grinch tonight. No, I'm just kidding. Hey careful now here the sacred ground But let's go ahead and bow for prayer and we'll be dismissed. I Our Father in heaven, we thank you for the opportunity that we've had to be in your house today. For all that our eyes have seen and our ears have heard, thank you for each person that's gathered out today. I pray that you're doing eternal work in all of our hearts. I pray, Lord, that you'd be with Brother Everson and his family as they sing for us tonight. And I pray that the events of this day would make an eternal impact. Lord, if there's one here today and we know that someone raised their hand for salvation. Lord, I pray that today would be that day that they would receive you as their Lord and Savior. Lord, if there's someone who doesn't know you or wants to get to know you more or clear up areas of confusion in their spiritual life, I pray, Lord, that you, just as the scripture promises, that you'd lead folks into all truth. We know, Lord, that you don't want people not to know whether they're going to heaven when they die. We want to have a no-so salvation. That's what the Bible says. And so, Lord, we do pray your blessing would be about your people. And bless the services tonight. Bless our day. Keep people safe as they'll be on the road. And we pray, Lord, that you'd be back with us tonight and that we'd have great services again. We pray these things in the name of Jesus. Amen.