The focus of the sermon this morning is gonna be around two principles. One is the principle that we must begin to understand ourselves and think of ourselves in terms of who we are in Christ, whatever our circumstances are. And secondly, we must live and behave in such a manner as to live in light of that which is to come to the glory and honor of God. So who we are in Christ and that which is to come to the glory and honor of God. That's where I'd like the sermon to go. And in this passage, we're dealing, Paul is dealing with slaves, Christian slaves. Slaves, men and women who had come to saving faith in Christ. Now, in our society, in our time of history, slaves are not as prevalent as they once were. We would be amiss if we thought there wasn't slavery going on around us all the time. The sex trafficking that is happening in our society, And I'm told, though I cannot prove it, but I'm told that Fargo itself is one of the key areas of trafficking young ladies and children in terms of sex. There's also the enslavement of children in terms of some of the things, if you follow the news, in terms of those who've come across the border. that some nefarious people have used opportunity to take advantage of children. But as a society, we don't practice the enslavement the way it once was. So we don't have many people in any particular congregation that can tell you, I once was a slave, or that I am presently a slave. And so then that causes us to think about, well, what's usefulness of this passage to us beyond historical interest? And I would say much. First of all, to rightly understand the church, slaves make up an important part of the early church. You can see that just from how often the topic is dealt with. In 1 Corinthians, in Ephesians, in Colossians, in 1 Timothy, in 1 Peter, the role of slaves and who they are is all directly spoken of. I even skipped a book, I forgot the book of Galatians, which hopefully we'll refer to, chapter three, verse 28. So the subject of slavery, men and women who in the moment were both Christian and actively enslaved in their daily life, was a reality to the early church. And at no time or place in the New Testament is that spoken against directly. Nowhere does the Apostle Paul or any other New Testament writer say that enslavement is wrong. And that has been a cause of much consternation. Many people in the church will want to say, well, we should have. And many outside the church accuse the church of being somehow racist. I'm not gonna deal with either one of those directly this morning, but simply to say both of those are wrong-headed. The role of the slave in the life of the church is very important and will play into what my two points I've just already laid out, that we are to think of ourselves in terms of who we are in Christ. That is so important that we get our head around that. You, as Paul will say in Galatians 3, verse 28, that in Christ, there's neither male nor female, not Jew nor Greek, nor slave nor free man. And your primary concept of yourself should not be, I'm a man, I'm a woman, I'm a Greek, I'm a Jew, I'm a slave, or I'm a free man. But that's how we tend to think. In our society, the idea of the temporal has become dominant. The moment in which I live is the most important moment that I have. And for a Christian, that is a false way to think. The most important moment in your life is the moment in which the old Adam is done away with at the grave and you are no longer in the body but absent from the body to be present with the Lord in anticipating of the great resurrection of the dead in which we will embody and soul live forever in the presence of the three times holy God and his son and the spirit in a manner in which we will dwell in the new heavens and the new earth forever. And you and I must begin to think about that because to think of ourselves in light of that, both who I am in Christ and that which is to come, gives context to everything that you are. Whether you're a male or a female, a slave or free, a Jew or a Greek, whether you're married or single, whether you're young or old, whether you're a student or an employer or an employee, your identity is first and foremost in Christ. And not to think that way messes everything else up. The illustration I've used on many occasions, I will use again, and again, I didn't bring it out, should have, I always say that too. But Sue Schaefer, wherever she is, where's Sue sitting? Oh, you're hiding from me behind Mr. Clark. You know, the little jar, we will sell tickets and give you a tour of my office and let you see the jar later if you would like. But a jar that's full of walnuts and rice, you know the routine, if you dump it all out, children, please do not go into my office and dump it out, and you end up putting all the rice back in first and then put in the walnuts, there's no room for the walnuts, at least not all of them. But if you put all the walnuts in first and then put in the rice, there's plenty of room for both. And as always, the point of the illustration is there is an order to things. You have to begin the order and move correctly. And so in this case, as we think of ourselves, the order is first and foremost, I am in Christ. Whatever else might be true of me is of secondary or tertiary value and meaning. I am in Christ. I am a Christian. And as a Christian, I live for that which is to come. As the Apostle Paul will say in Philippians chapter two, he says, or actually chapter one, he says, to live is Christ, to die is to what? Gain. We don't think that way. We talk differently. We say, oh, we lost old Uncle so-and-so this week. No, we didn't lose him. We know exactly where he is if he's put his faith in Christ. He's gained something. And then Paul goes on to say in Philippians 1, to stay back and work for you is of great value and profit, but to go to be with Jesus is very much better. And that's a man who's thinking about himself in terms of being in Christ, as he will say in Galatians 2, that through the law I've been crucified. I no longer live, but Christ lives in me, and the life I now live, I live by faith in Him. Christ lives in me. That's the defining reality to a Christian man or a woman. And the life we now live, we live by faith in Christ. anticipating his return, and the judging of the nations, the living and the dead, and the establishment of his kingdom. These are the things that are true of us, and this is really in the background of what Paul has to say. He will make a comment, one writer put it this way, in terms of salvation can be worked out in any condition of life. And in another world, it will not matter much what a man's outward conditions in this world have been. Again, salvation can be worked out or lived in any condition of life, as a king, as a pauper, as a free man, as a slave, under totalitarianism or in a free nation. Our Christian life can be lived under any circumstance whatsoever. And in the world to come, there's not gonna be a lot of interest in what your outward conditions were in this life. I don't think in heaven there will be a special room for all the football hall of famers. or the baseball Cy Young Award winners, or the pop singers who had number one hits. And so we must consider our lives as being in Christ. Now Christianity, as I said, from its earliest days was made up of both free and slaves. And again, without rehearsing all the books, Paul has to write and Peter has to write repeatedly about the subject, the congregations. This was a huge thing. Now, it's of interest that the context in which the Roman Empire existed brought context to some of what's being said. Most of you, I'm sure, are well-read on what's known as the Serphile Wars in Rome. I'm sure you've read much on them, right? No? Well, let me give you a little bit of background. Slave uprisings were constant in Rome. and they're known as the Servile Wars, and there's three that stood out as a particular interest in terms of the historian. The first Servile War was in 135 to 132 BC, primarily in Sicily. Thousands of slaves and agricultural workers had been mistreated by their masters, and they decided to rebel, and it was eventually crushed by the Roman military. The second is Servile War, happened between 104 and 100 BC, also on Sicily. The outcome was, again, the same. The third one, you probably all have heard of, whether you realize it or not, but if you watched the movie Spartacus with Kirk Douglas, that's about the Third Servile War. Spartacus was a gladiator who had been enslaved, and the enslavement of the people and the brutal conditions led to this uprising where literally thousands upon thousands of slaves rebelled against Rome. There was repeated attempts to subdue it, and the slaves under the leadership of Spartacus continued to thwart Rome until eventually there became a Roman general named Marcus Crassius who will eventually defeat Spartacus and thousands of captured rebels were crucified on the main highway of Rome known as the Appian Way as a warning to all future rebellious slaves. Thousands. The Appian Way is the main, still exists to this day. You can, if you go to Italy, you can travel on the Appian Way. And on both sides of the road were thousands and thousands of crucified slaves. The outcome of that was the stricter slave laws and increasing of the, the military got stronger. And they were not going to allow that to happen ever again. And that happened only in 73 to 71 BC. So less than 100 years. That was closer in time to the early church than the Civil War is to us in our own history. And I believe this is in part why Paul is so careful to talk about slaves not being rebellious. Because the culture was spring-loaded to crush slave rebellion. And as the early church's beginning, the last thing it needed to be perceived at as another servile war against Rome. And again, that's important because as Christians, our main call in life is not to be rebellious against the form of government in which we live under. Our primary citizenship is in heaven. Yes, we need to care about what goes on around us. Yes, we ought to be involved in our society. We're not called to be monks or hermits and to hide out and tell the rapture or the returning of Christ, however you understand the second coming. We are to be alive and engaged in the world in which we live. But our primary focus is not to revolt. Rebellion, we're told in the Bible, is as the sin of witchcraft. Whatever transformation comes through the church, it does not come as a result of rebellion, which is another thing I want to make mention of in terms of our introduction. And I'm still just trying to introduce things here. Slavery. does go through tremendous transformations, but not because the church is rebellious, but because of the nature of the gospel. As we said, the first and primary thing is that we must begin to think of ourselves not as Jew or Greek, male or female, free or slave, but as in Christ. And as a result of that, A man, two men, may be in a congregation, and Monday through Friday, Monday through Saturday, one is the master and one is the slave, and on Sunday, they are equal. And this was not only an interesting quirk, it actually changes how people saw each other. Three examples. One is a man known as Belindia of Lyons, who in the year 177 A.D. is martyred and is held up in high esteem as the martyrs were in that day, and he himself had been a slave, martyred for the cause of Christ. Another, maybe more interesting at one level, is a man named Callistius who becomes the Bishop of Rome. In other words, he becomes, in the Roman Catholic vocabulary, one of the first popes. He had been a slave. Whether you embrace popedom, which we don't as Protestants, We do embrace that there was a long lineage of bishops who governed Rome and those bishops were highly important in the early church. And here a slave becomes one of the most powerful leaders in the church. The third example which we have in scripture is Onesimus. And while it's not exactly clear, the historical record is not perfectly clear in terms of exactly Onesimus, but there is historical evidence and the early church believed that Onesimus becomes one of the key leaders of the Colossian church, an elder who is spiritually speaking over his leader, his master Philemon. One writer put it, Paul's approach, however, is not to attempt to abolish slavery as an institution, but to call Christians to live out the implication of their common status as members of the redeemed community. Thus he sold the seeds for a spiritual rather than a bloody revolution. In other words, when the church is the church, things change, slowly, but peacefully. In 1689, the year that our confession would be publicly signed and affirmed, there had been what was called the bloodless revolution in England. And the gospel had prevailed in such a way that for the first time in Roman history, Christians were not putting to death other Christians or imprisoning them as they struggled with whether they were a Protestant Reformed nation or a Catholic nation. And under the Protestant Reformed moniker, are they Anglican, are they Presbyterian, or are they truly Reformed Congregationalist Baptists? And for the very first time in the history of England, the religious wars were over. How did that bloodless revolution occur? Because it was only a couple, a few decades earlier in the same country with the same struggles, the king is beheaded and is put on a stake in the midst of parliament. It's the gospel. The gospel changes things because it changes people. It changes people how they think, how they perceive themselves, how they perceive others. As I've told you the story on other occasions, when I was a new believer, so this is, you know, 40 some, 50 years ago, so I don't remember the particulars, so I wish I could tell you the man's name and the country, But as a new believer in my church, a man, a black man from Africa came to speak who had been not enslaved, but imprisoned by the tyrant of his country for being a Christian. And he was beaten brutally. on a regular basis, often hung upside down while he was being beaten by his fellow countrymen. And then after they'd be done beating him, they would cut the rope and he'd land on his head. And after one of these beatings, as the guards were leaving the room, you've heard me tell the story, he lifts his head and says, have a good day. And those simple words penetrated the heart of at least one of his captors, who secretly came back later and says, how can you wish me to have a good day after what I've done to you for these many days or months? Shares the gospel, the guard became a Christian. Together they plotted how he would be able to escape, and the two of them leave this prison together. And this man says, from the pulpit in the church I attended, The hard part for me was not forgiving him while we were in prison. The hard part is once we were out of the prison and safely away to begin to treat him as my brother in Christ. But that's who he is. As Paul will say in 2 Corinthians 5, 17, if any man be in Christ, he's a new creation. The old things have passed away. Behold, all things have become new. And that's not just true for me. It's true for you. And therefore, it's true in how I look at you and how I treat you and how you look at me and how you treat me. You're no longer my enemy. You are my brother or my sister in Christ. You're no longer a pagan, but a fellow heir in the Lord Jesus Christ. The same Holy Spirit that indwells me indwells you, and wouldn't it be odd if the Holy Spirit in you can't get along with the Holy Spirit that's in me? And so all of that is somewhat of a context, I'm sure it's overly simplified and superficial, but it's somewhat of a context in which these words are given to us. Paul says, all who are under the yoke as slaves are to regard their own masters as worthy of all honor, so that the name of God and our doctrine will not be spoken against. Let's pull that apart a little bit. He's speaking to slaves. The typical word, doulos. And he places them under the yoke, that is to be under the yoke was a difficult thing. A yoke, you think of the cattle that are under the yoke to be able to help plow the field. Rome had a tradition when it won a war and it would bring all the captives back and they would march down the city and with the glorious army and the victorious Roman general, all of the captors would have to walk under the yoke. to demonstrate symbolically their submission and enslavement to the Roman Empire. Jesus will speak in Matthew 11, that take upon my yoke, but his not a yoke that's hard, it's a yoke that's easy. My yoke is light, it's not a burden. So we become possessions of Christ and belong to him, or as was read earlier by Brother Johnson, we've become enslaved to him. Romans chapter 6. But here Paul is acknowledging that not only there are slaves in this household. Remember, we've highlighted many times in chapter 3 verse 15, I'm writing these things in order that you might know how to conduct yourself in the household of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and support of truth. He's talked about teachers. He's talked about women. He's talked about widows. He's talked about elders, both faithful and unfaithful elders. And now he turns his attention to slaves, real slaves, slaves who on the next day are gonna go back to their masters and have something to do. And it will be described as living under the yoke. It is not an easy life. The word for master there, is the word, our English word, despot. Not the typical word for Lord in the New Testament, kurios. This is the despot, the one who has absolute authority. This is actually a good word. It's applied of God the Father in the New Testament. It's applied of the Lord Jesus Christ in the New Testament. And how much authority does Christ have? Well, Jesus says all authority in heaven and earth has been given to him. And so in the context of slavery, slavery is not a democracy. Slavery is not a republic. Slavery is not a place in which there are equals who come to the table. There's no common place for striking and debating for new contracts. The owner has absolute and complete authority over his slave. And Paul lays out the case that even if you have a heathen, an unbelieving despot, the slave must deem his master worthy of every kind of honor that is due to him. Now much has been said in the last chapter about honor. Remember back in verse three, we are to honor the widows who are widows indeed. And in verse 17, the elders who rule well are to be considered worthy of double honor, especially those who work hard at preaching and teaching. And now masters, I mean slaves, are to regard their own masters as worthy of not just honor, but of all honor. What's the reason? Because slavery is such a good deal? No. Because Christianity is trying to reinforce slavery? No. The reason is given to us. So the name of God in our doctrine will not be spoken against. As someone once wrote, Wouldn't it be a strange thing if the pagan slaves were better to their masters than the Christian slaves? If a slave becomes a Christian, then as a result of Christianity, stops serving, stops caring, stops cooperating and becomes rebellious, what will be spoken of about God and his teachings? You see some of that in our present day. When I was much younger, and I was involved in international student ministries, I was told at the time, this was back in the 80s, don't know if the numbers are true to this day, but I think they're probably pretty close, that 70% of all future world leaders are educated in America. So the nations around the world tend to send their best and brightest to America because the understanding was our universities and colleges were the best in the world. And many of those who would come learned to speak English through the Christian missionary in their country. And whether they came to America as students, as Christians or not, didn't matter. Their introduction to America was through a Christian missionary teaching them about God and the Bible. And then they get to America, and they see what happens on our college campuses. The immorality. The rebellion. The disregard for norms. They watch what's on our televisions, and they watch what's in our movie theaters, and they conclude this is what Christianity has produced. Christianity produces immorality and evil of every sort. This is one reason why many Muslims consider America the great Satan. It's not the only reason, but it's certainly a contributing cause. And so when these young men and women have been thoroughly schooled in America and seen, lived in the dorms at NDSU or Minnesota State or Concordia or wherever they've gone, and they return to their country, what is the view of America and Christianity they take with them? One of, we don't want anything to do with that. We've seen what it produces. And so what if a slave who becomes a Christian had been a good and faithful slave, but now he's a Christian, starts to act rebelliously, indifferently, and doesn't fulfill his obligations? What will the conclusion be of the society in terms of what Christianity produces? And this is why we must begin, and one of my points, we must first and foremost understand that I am a Christian, I'm not a man, I'm not a woman, I'm not a Jew, I'm not a Greek, I'm not slave, I'm not free, I'm a Christian. What I say, what I do, how I conduct myself, my attitudes, my actions, how I spend my time, how I spend my money, how I work, how I play, all that I am, I do so as a representative of the Lord Jesus Christ and the world is watching. And the world is drawing conclusions. If that's what it means to be a Christian as they consider you, I want none of Christ. And so the reason is twofold. One, slave, you are to regard your master, your despot as worthy of all honor. So one, that the name of God would not be defiled. Paul will argue in Romans 2 that because of the Jews, The name of God is blasphemed amongst the Gentiles. You and I, this local congregation, and the way we live and the way they act, they may reject us, they may ignore us, they may discount us, they may think us weird, but the one thing that our immediate community should never say is their God is a wicked, evil God. And the proof of that is, look how they live, look how they love, look how they treat other people, look how they work. Secondly, he says, that our doctrine will not be spoken against. So it's not just the name of God, but the very teachings of Christianity. And so as the slave, so us. We are to regard those around us, not for our self-gain or self-comfort, but to the glory of God and the glory of the church of the Lord Jesus Christ. Our society puts an emphasis today on me, my rights, my freedoms, my desires, been coming for a long time, but became very prevalent in the 50s. Go back and watch the movie Rebel Without a Cause with James Dean in the 1950s. It had already begun. It's flaunted in the 60s with free sex. You can't be with the one you love. Love the one you're with. So Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young sang to us. The pill that gave free sex. opportunity with no consequences. You see it growing in rebellion in children. Even Christian psychologists who teach rebellion of teenagers is a natural consequence and is not necessarily sinful. To where now in our society the sovereign self has rised to such ascendancy, I get to decide whether I'm a male or a female. Our politicians have embraced it. Courts have embraced it. Schools have embraced it. And so what Paul is saying here to the slaves is, no, your sovereign self died on the cross with Christ, and now in Christ you're not a slave. You are a Christian, and as a Christian, the name of God and the teachings of the church are your primary concern. And as a slave, the primary way in which you exalt and glorify the name of God and the scriptures is to consider your despot worthy of all honor. And this is a principle that is true for every station of life. It's true of children towards their parents, It's true of employees toward their employers. It's true of citizens towards police. You're speeding and you get pulled over. Do not give the middle finger to the police officer and tell him he needs to go be catching the real criminals. You're acting in an inappropriate manner. I don't know how many of you follow the news, but the quick back and forth between Trump and the governor of Maine that some people are uncomfortable with, because it was an uncomfortable moment. You may not all agree or disagree with it, but he made some comment at a luncheon for governors and said, you know, about needing to obey the law in terms of No men in women's sports. And he turns to the governor mayor of Maine, rather, and says, you know, you need to comply. And she says, we will follow the law, both state and federal. And Trump says, I am the law. As the president of the United States, he's an embodiment of the federal law. That's what the president is. but hear the governor of a state saying, I don't have to follow the leaders, I'll do what I want. Again, as I said earlier, rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft. It doesn't matter who you are in the pecking order of society. It doesn't matter if you're a child or an adult or an employee or an employer or a citizen or a ruler. Rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft. And the changes we bring does not come by rebellion, but by living out the law and the gospel seriously in every station of life. Then Paul goes on. Those who have believers as masters must not be disrespectful to them because they are brethren, but must serve them all the more because those who partake of the benefit are believers and beloved. Teach and preach these principles. Well, you could see how easy it would be. You're a slave in Rome. You become a believer and you're starting to enjoy all the benefits of Christianity. You're going to church on Sundays and you're hearing the prophets and the apostles read. You're beginning to learn to sing the Psalms. You're treated as an equal on the Lord's day. And then maybe you have an opportunity to actually share the gospel with your master, who then repents and believes on the Lord Jesus Christ, who comes to church with you. and you sing together and you worship together, you break bread together, you drink from the same cup. Regardless of what you wanna say, in the early church, they drank from one cup. Think about that for a moment. Philemon and Onesimus drinking from the same cup. That is a profound sociological event that unravels so much. You can see how easy it would be for that slave to start to think, well, gee, my despot treats me like a brother on Sunday, but on Monday, he's treating me like every other slave, even the unbelieving slaves. And to start to think, I don't like this. He ought to treat me better. And start to become disrespectful and embittered. And Paul says, no, may it not be that way. They're not to be disrespected, just because they're brethren. But if you serve them well when they are unbelieving, serve them better, now they are brethren. because of the fact that they are in fact Christians. I've told you, mentioned to you on several occasions a man named Seneca, a Roman philosopher and a man who had tremendous influence on King Nero. And one of the great mysteries of history is why Nero was probably one of the best Caesars for the first couple years of his reign. And then like a light switch, something happens. But while he's under the tutelage of Seneca, he is one of the greatest of all Roman Caesars. And Seneca was so important that Calvin, before he becomes a Christian, wants to write an entire book on the vocabulary of Seneca. Another one of those books I'm sure you all have in your library and refer to often in homeschooling. How did Seneca understand that Latin word? But Seneca makes a comment about slaves and slave activities. He says, and this becomes a statement that the early church will use, whatever it is that exceeds the form of servile duty, that is performed not by command but by will is a benefit. Whatever it is that exceeds the form of servile duty that is performed not by command but by the will is a benefit." And that's the very idea, the word benefit there is the very idea here in terms of You must serve them all the more because those who partake of the benefit, same word, are believers and beloved. Beloved by who? Beloved by Christ. The Apostle Paul will speak similarly in Colossians. He says, slaves, Colossians 3.22, slaves in all things obey those who are your masters on earth. Not with external service as those who merely please men, but with sincerity of heart, fearing the Lord. See, how is he thinking of himself? I'm not thinking myself merely as a slave serving a master. I'm a Christian man, reverentially fearing the Lord. Whatever you do, do your work heartily as to the Lord. Now see, beyond the master, the despot, the employer, the parent, the teacher, you are living and serving Christ. Whatever you do, do your work heartily as to the Lord rather than for men, knowing that from the Lord you receive the reward. Hear the eschatology? He's not going to receive much. He may receive some reward in this life, but the reward is really that which is to come, knowing that from the Lord you will receive a reward of the inheritance, future. It is the Lord Christ whom you serve, for he who does wrong will receive consequences of the wrong which he has done, and that without partiality. Now in that case, Paul does go on to talk about masters in a way he doesn't speak directly in Timothy, though I think there are implications. We'll get to those in weeks to come. But Paul will say in chapter four, masters grant your slaves despots, grant your slaves justice and fairness, knowing that you too have a master in heaven. And so we must begin to think of ourselves, whatever condition you find yourself in, whatever the circumstance that you're in, whether it's a good one or a bad one, a pleasant one or a hard one, a just one or an unjust one, you must perceive yourself first and foremost as a Christian who is concerned about the glory of God And the teaching of the church, that's who you are as a Christian. That's your job, that's your calling. And that you are to treat those in authority over you in light of the fifth commandment and give them the honor that they deserve. And do so, not because it's gonna give you any immediate relief, but because of that which is to come in the age to come." There's your eschatology. I think I read somewhere, Revelation, he will wipe every eye, every tear from your eye. He will make everything straight that man is bent. He will give back a hundredfold. Who are you? There was all that big hoopla about the Americans and the Canadians playing hockey. Instead of watching the hockey game, I went back and watched Miracle on Ice, one of my favorite movies. You remember they're over in Sweden and the young guys are checking out the nice chicks not playing hockey all that well. And so then the coach Brooks makes them stay after and do all those wind sprints again, again, again. If you watch the movie, you know what I'm talking about. And there are these guys have gone, they've already played a whole hockey game. Now they're being pushed and they're getting to where they can't even stand up anymore. And he blows the whistle again, again, and again. And finally, once the coach has asked the whistle to be blown again, You hear this one voice. I'm Mike Arruziono, or however you say his name, from Massachusetts. And I play for the United States. I don't know why I'm getting emotional. But that's every Christian, not the United States part. But if I was to wake you up at three in the morning, I should be able to say, who are you? I am Doug Vander Meulen. I live in Fargo, North Dakota. And I am a Christian. And I live for God and his glory and the glory of his church. That's who we are. And whatever context and circumstance you find yourself, that's who you are. And that's who the slaves of Rome were. And they lived in a dangerous time in which there had been a long history of servile rebellion, and it never ended well for the rebels. We know it will end well for the church because Christ will return. Let's live for Him. and may we be found looking for the resurrection of the dead and the life of the world to come. May God grant us ears to hear and hearts to believe what the Spirit might be saying to us this morning. Let us pray. Heavenly Father, we acknowledge that we too often are more concerned about ourselves and getting our just due than we are concerned about you and your glory and the welfare of the church. Grant us the grace to put a stop to that now and to live for you and to live in such a way that your name is honored. Even as Jesus himself says in the Sermon on the Mount, to live in such a way as in the day of visitation, that the Gentiles will give glory to God. May that be true of each one of us who believe on Christ individually. May it be true of this church as a whole, as a congregation, that you would grant to us in the way we live and work and play to be a shining light. And all who know of our church, while they may disagree with us for many reasons, that they would say truly they're God is a great and awesome God. Grant us these things in Christ in whom we pray. Amen.