Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Hey, it's great to be with you guys this morning. It's also great to reconnect with the Layton family. Jerry and I have known each other for almost 20 years. It was our honor to support he and Donna up at Nooksack Valley Baptist Church in northern Washington, where my wife and I served for about 15 years. And when you mentioned the brother that got bit by the Black Widow, it reminded me I really didn't take a whole lot to the Northwest. I just didn't adapt to it. It's gloomy. It's rainy. But the advantages are there are no black widows, no rattlesnakes, no poison oak, nothing like that. And then you come down here. And we live now in Fair Oaks. And every year, we've got to haul wood or move furniture or whatever. Black widows. We live by a pasture. There's a possibility of rattlesnakes. It's great to be in California for a lot of reasons, but those are two reasons that are not great. I tell you, I've got to get used to that. Hey, I've been asked to speak to you men this morning, and Phil kind of let me know that it sounds like we're very much kindred spirits as far as the direction that we believe that godly men need to go, and that is that they need to lead. We cannot assume anymore that men will lead. The reality is we will lead. The question is whether we're godly leaders or ungodly leaders, whether we're leading our families, our people towards Christ or away from him. But the bottom line is we are going to lead. And so much of what we do as a local church here or in Sacramento County is motivating men to be whom God has called them to be, and that is to be Christ-following leaders. Either way, we're leaders. We can't escape that. We can't avoid that. We either lead in absentia or we lead in the present. And so with that, it's no longer... really, the motive is no longer to persuade men to lead. It's rather to say, what kind of a leader are you going to be? And what direction are you leading your people? Because they want to follow you and they will follow you. So what direction are you leading them, right? And so what I want to talk to you about today is simply just gospel-centered prayer. I went in the ministry in 1982. I was a college pastor in Concord, in the Bay Area, for about six years. And it was interesting because when I went in the ministry in 1982, there was a very strong emphasis on the Inspiration Scripture. really big push to make sure that the inerrancy and the inspiration of Scripture was sound. It was there. And it seems that from that moment, when I went into the ministry, there has always been an emphasis. For example, I mentioned inspiration of Scripture. There was the Bible study movement, precept upon precept, deductive-inductive Bible study. Those became very dominant and very beneficial, very good and very powerful. There was also the prophecy movement that people would go around and give prophecy conferences on this is the sequence of events and those were very beneficial. There's the spiritual warfare conference movement, you know, Frank Peretti, Neil Anderson came out and all kinds of really wonderful teaching. was on spiritual warfare and how we should not see a demon behind every bush. We should see 10 or 15 demons behind every bush. And there was some benefit in that. There was some strong things. Then came the music and drama issues, the seeker-sensitive issues that hit many of our churches. And those became ultimate. 40 days for this and 40 days for that. Very strong. Very powerful. Did really a lot of beneficial things. within the church. And there was that. And so we were told, you've got to do the 40 days. You've got to do the spiritual warfare. You've got to do the prophecy. You've got to do this conference. And then came Promise Keepers. Filling stadiums of 50, 60,000 guys singing, holy, holy, holy. Incredible experience. And that became, we've got to get men to these conferences. We've got to get men to these stadiums and fill these stadiums and hear these speakers come. And so there was this Promise Keepers movement that was so strong. A lot of family movements. Bill Gothard was big, huge. I don't know if he is anymore, but he was at the time. And growing kids God's way was a major, major emphasis in churches. And so we were told at that time, you know, you don't need to go to the prophecy conferences, you need to go to this conference. And you don't need to go to that conference, you need to go to this conference, because this is the thing now. So do this. Then came Richard Foster's book, Celebration of Discipline. Dallas Willard wrote on this. And all of a sudden, now we've got to practice the disciplines of fasting, and solitude, and giving, and Bible reading, and pray, and praying the Scriptures. A prayer movement came along. Arcade Church was very present in that. So all these times, in just the 30 years I've been in ministry, I've been encouraged as a leader, you've got to lead your people here and do this. And then all of a sudden, well, you don't need to do that anymore. You need to do this. And you do this, and OK, you don't need to do that anymore. We're moving on to something. You now need to do this. And now you need to do this. And now you need to do this. For us now, if there's the next thing for us now at our K-Church is moving into biblical counseling, and my prayer is that that just is not the next thing. My prayer is that in five years, we're tired of that, and now we're moving on to something else, because now there's 60 days to wholeness, or these 10 steps to the new you, or whatever it is. I grow weary of that. And here's the problem. Whenever we hitch our post to something that's good, and all the things I mention, I think, are good. They're fine. But when we hitch our posts to something like that, something good, what happens so many times to us is that that good thing becomes an ultimate thing. It becomes a litmus test of spirituality. Whenever we, as Christians, emphasize something that we do, the end product is always Always pride and arrogance. You mean you're not into this? Well, we are, and this is what godly people do. Oh, you're not into this? This is what godly people do. And we end up being unintentional boasters in things that we think people ought to do. You guys don't go to promise keepers? All the cool guys in Sacramento go to promise keepers. And what can happen is that we form this unintentional attitude of boast. And most of you probably know your Bibles well. The Bible says that we are boasters, but we are to boast in one thing. And that is the cross. We boast not in what we have done. We boast in Christ. We boast in the value and the power of redemption. And what happens there, is when we focus on what we do, we become unintentional boasters. But when we focus on the Gospel, all of a sudden, humility kicks in, and all of our attention is drawn away from ourselves. And so, one of the things I'll just share with you, I say it probably once a month at Arcade Church, is I would like us to find out if it's possible to overemphasize the Gospel. I don't think it is. I think it's possible to overemphasize prayer. I think it's possible to overemphasize a doctrine. I think it's possible to overemphasize prophecy. I think it's possible to overemphasize family. I think it's possible to overemphasize a lot of the things that we are attached to in action. I think it's impossible to overemphasize the Gospel, because the more we emphasize the Gospel, two things happen to us. When we emphasize the Gospel, two things happen to us. We become more and more aware of the depth and the beauty and the power and the authority of Jesus Christ. And at the same time, we become more and more aware of the depth of our own wickedness. A mature Christian A mature man is not a man who sins less than an immature man. A mature godly man is a man who understands the holiness and the beauty of Christ, and he understands the layer upon layer of his own potential for wickedness. That's why Paul could tell Timothy, hey listen Timothy, this is my translation, hey Timothy, when it comes to sinning, I'm varsity, everybody else is JV. I am the worst sinner I know." That was not Paul faking humility. When he has been in touch with the beauty and the holiness of Christ, he is also in touch with the reality of his own potential for wickedness. And so brothers, what I want to present to you is something that I did not come up with. I got this actually from a book written by J.D. Greer. Never heard of them before. It came out probably a year or two ago, just on the gospel. And there's a chapter in there on prayer. And the reason why this resonates with me is that RK Church, before I got there, through the leadership of other very godly pastors, became very predominant in the prayer movement. And by the time I got there, I began to realize, along with the elders, that something had happened to us as a church. we had become very proud of our prayer. And as I read the New Testament, there is all kinds of grace in the New Testament. All kinds of God accepting us in Christ because of the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. But there are a couple places where it says God comes against us. James, 1 Peter, and in those places, God comes against us when His people are filled with pride. And pride usually comes up from good things, not sinful things, but good things that we do. And so I began to pray, and I began to ask God, do we need to be humbled in this? Because we like for people to see how we pray. We like the idea that we are a praying church. And I could sense that we were in the throes of kind of puffing our chest out and that alarmed me because I do not want, I'm a pastor, I want God to be for us. I don't want to be against us. So we've had to work on humbling ourselves before God and finding out who we are. And one of the ways I want to present to you this morning is just praying the gospel The words have been adapted a little bit to who we are at RK Church, but I want to share that with you. You've got them there as far as notes are concerned. I just want to go through this and talk about them briefly and just unpack them a little bit, and hopefully you'll be blessed by that. The first part of the prayer is, Heavenly Father, because of Jesus, there is nothing I can do that would make you love me more, and nothing I have done that makes you love me less. Phil just told me that he just got done preaching through Ephesians. And if there's one thing, a theme that is dominant in Ephesians is grace. And not just because of Ephesians 2.8. But grace is throughout. Grace is in chapter 1. God choosing us before the foundation. What is it that would motivate God to choose you and choose me? Grace. What is it that would motivate God to take dead people and say, breathe, live. What is that grace? And so when we pray this and what I challenge our congregation is to pray this every day. And I know that we're Baptist, too, and we don't like to read prayers. I get that. But I believe that this is and I'll tell you why in a second here. But it's important for us to ground ourselves in the beauty of that gospel. Because more often than not, as I deal with Christians in a Biblical counseling way, many of them who believe in the grace of Jesus Christ, they come because of really cruddy circumstances they're in, a lousy marriage, rebellious children, deserted people, betrayal, mistrust, hurts, disease, all pain, all kinds of reasons that they come to me for advice from a Biblical standpoint. But what happens many times is these Christians who believe in the grace of God, they come because their life is rotten, and they're convinced that that's God punishing them because of something they've done in the past. What a cruddy way to live, right? And so one of the pleasures of being a pastor is saying, listen, whatever is happening to you is not because you're being punished. If you believe the gospel, then you believe that Jesus took your punishment. What a lousy parent if God punishes Jesus and then punishes you for the same offense. So we now know that what you're experiencing is not because of punishment. You're experiencing something because a good and gracious God wants you to go through this. So let's go through it. Let's find out what God is doing. And I have them pray this. Because of Jesus, there is nothing I can do that would make you love me more and nothing I have done that makes you love me less. A really great text. A good one is Ephesians 3, but I'm guessing you're familiar with that. But take your Bibles, please, and turn to Psalm 103. Just a really great and powerful text. Psalm 103. Perhaps some of you have memorized this. If you haven't, it's worth memorizing. Psalm 103, verse 11. For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his steadfast love toward those who fear him. As far as the east is from the west, so far does he remove our transgressions from us. Why does he not say as far as the north is from the south? North and South are destination places. There are poles there. East and West, there is no designation. And brothers, I think that as you lead your homes and as you lead your wives and your children in the Gospel, that Jesus that they have to know intricately, intimately in your home, is the Jesus that is prayed, because of Jesus, there is nothing I can do that would make you love me more, and nothing I have done that makes you love me less. This is so significant. Here's the reason why. Now, don't throw me out of here, because this may sound like a heretical statement. The role that Satan plays, and the role that the Holy Spirit plays, can be very similar. Because the role of Satan and the role of the Holy Spirit many times is to shine a light on our sin. For totally different reasons. The reason why Satan brings to light your sin, usually as men, those secret sins, those secret sins that perhaps our wives and children do not know about. The reason why Satan wants to shine a light on that sin is to draw you from the gospel, to draw you away from the cross, to draw you into despair, to draw you into that. Or, to draw you into pride. Either way, he's happy. If he can draw us into despair, or if he can draw us into pride, job well done for Satan. And that's what happens. How many of you made New Year's resolutions? You did. Okay, two of us. Great. We like to make New Year's resolutions, and here's what happens. It could be that you made a resolution, I'm going to read through the Bible before the year's over, before 2014, I'm going to read through the Bible. So, January 1, you begin in Genesis, and you're doing great. You're loving the story. You're loving the story of the flood, of Joseph. It's going great. You get into the Exodus. clicking on all cylinders, it's going wonderful, you're loving the whole Exodus story. You get kind of to the end of Exodus and all this tabernacle business, and then you get to Leviticus and the white pussy wounds with hair on it, and you're thinking, okay, you get bogged down here a little bit, and by the time you're in Numbers, you know what, maybe I'll just read the New Testament this year. People that set resolutions, and there's nothing wrong with that, but half of us who set resolutions will not make it, will break the resolution. And that will throw us into despair because we think, what a loser I am. I can't even read the Bible. I know of all kinds of Christians at church that they just know their Bibles frontwards and backwards. I'll never be able to know mine. I'm going to be I'm going to be a second string Christian. And Satan's going. But. Yeah, JV, you'll never make the team. But then the other side is the other half of us will be able to read the Bible in a year. We'll be able to do whatever we resolve to do because it's in our DNA to be disciplined. It's in our DNA to do things that we may not want to do for a benefit that's down the road. And what happens there is, look at me, I've read the Bible. I did what I set out. Why can't brother so-and-so just do what you promised to do? You resolved to do it, so do it. I could do it. And either way, Satan wins because he sheds light on our sin and he brings that to light. And the purpose of that is to take us away from the cross, to take us away from God's grace. The Holy Spirit does the same thing. He brings conviction to us about our sin. He shines a light on our sin. Why? Not to draw us away, not for us to beat ourselves over the head, because that's just another form of selfishness. When we go, oh man, I'm just worm spit, I'll never make it, I'm just never going to do it. That's just the other side of the coin of self-centeredness. The reason why the Holy Spirit wants us to see who we are in our sin is to drive us in a fresh and new way to the cross. Yes, Jesus paid for that too. Yes, His blood is sufficient for that, for that thought, for that desire, for that passion. Yes, it's dark. I'm shining light on it. I see it now when you see it for what it is. And so go to the cross, brother. Go to the cross. That's the Holy Spirit's job. And when we pray this prayer, the intent there is to remind ourselves of the beauty of that Gospel, that there is nothing that I could do that would cause Jesus to love me less or more. Because he is sufficient. He is beautiful. He is powerful. He is great. When I was up north, it's not so much here just because the city is larger. I was a baseball coach. And I worked for the public school system and taught, or coached baseball. And loved it. Loved the kids. Seventh grade boys. And it was great. I loved it. And one thing I noticed as I've coached over the years, and I've coached for a long time, is that there are kids who have a lot of talent in baseball. They can catch, they can throw, they can hit. But they can't perform in the game because they are so preoccupied with mom and dad in the bleachers. And baseball is a cruel sport. There's a reason why they call it hardball. It hurts. And every season, I would have a player or two that would get hit by a pitch, get hit by a ground ball, misjudge a fly ball simply because they were so preoccupied. Is dad watching? Is mom watching? Are they watching? Are they doing this? Are they there? And what happens is these very talented kids have a very difficult time performing in the game simply because they're so preoccupied with what others are thinking of them. I think that it's very important for us, as we remind ourselves of the Gospel, as we pray that first part of that prayer, is that we are living for Christ. And we can become so preoccupied with our own condition that we lose sight of who Jesus is. And when it comes to performing as godly men, as husbands, as fathers, leading our families, pastoring our own children, we become so preoccupied with our own foibles, our own weaknesses, maybe our own secrets. that we fail to appropriate the beauty and the love of Jesus Christ through the Gospel. So the purpose of that first prayer is to just do that, is to focus on that. The second part, the second line, Heavenly Father, Your presence and approval are all I need for the kind of joy that lasts forever. Your presence and approval are all I need for the kind of joy that lasts forever. I'm preaching tomorrow at Arcade Church on John 4, the woman at the well. We're kind of going through the gospel of John at a very quick pace. We're doing it in 12 weeks, which is torture for a preacher. But we're going to do that. But what we're doing is kind of a congregation-wide. The congregation is supposed to read John 3 and John 4 together. And what's interesting is that John deliberately puts two conversations, two private conversations that Jesus has, almost back-to-back. There's some stuff in between, but almost back-to-back. There's Jesus' conversation with Nicodemus, and then there's Jesus' conversation with the woman at the well. And I think that John does that for a number of reasons. I mean, he wrote the book so that people will believe and have life. But I think he does that to give us kind of a lesson in witnessing. Because it's interesting, Jesus witnessing His conversation in drawing Nicodemus and the woman at the well, He used two different plans, two different ways. To Nicodemus, Jesus is... He's almost in your face. Nicodemus, you need to be born again, because if you're not, you'll be condemned. In fact, you're already condemned. To the woman at the well, He doesn't mention anything about new birth. He doesn't mention anything about condemnation. All He talks about to the woman at the well is living water. And if you drink of the living water He has, then it will come up from inside of you. And you too will be that fountain of living water. And they both get to the same end. They both end up at Jesus. But why is it that Jesus is talking to Nicodemus about being reborn and about condemnation, and then He goes over here and doesn't mention any of that? Not one thing about new birth to the one with the well. And the reason, obviously, as you know, is because Jesus knew who He was talking to. There was no canned approach for Him. With Nicodemus, Nicodemus, you think that you deserve eternal life. You think that you have avoided condemnation by virtue of your goodness. What you need is a reboot. You need new creation. You need to know that everything that you've built up matters nothing. You need to be born again. Why didn't Jesus talk about being born again to the woman at the well? Probably because she would have laughed in His face. If you were to tell the woman at the well, you need to be born again, she'd start laughing and says, why do you think I've had five husbands? I keep thinking that the next husband is going to be the new life. It's going to be better. It's going to be better. It's going to be better. And now I'm kind of on number six. It's not even worth marrying this guy. Of course I need new birth, Jesus. Why do you think I've been married five times? What I need, I'm thirsty. Nicodemus was proud. He wasn't thirsty. Jesus needed to make him thirsty. The woman at the well, she was thirsty. She was not proud. She needed to be quenched. And that's what we're talking about here, is when you get right down to it, both Nicodemus and the woman at the well were pursuing contentment from completely two different ways. Nicodemus' contentment in performance, success, prestige, position, religion, the woman with the wealth, contentment in relationships, in finding the right man. And both of them were looking for the same thing at the same time. But what this is about, what this prayer is about, is your presence and approval are all I need for the kind of joy that lasts forever. What would happen to your sons and daughters, men, if their mom and dad actually lived that out every day? that they saw within you. They may never be able to put words to it, but they saw in you this strange contentment where it seems that mom and dad were never thirsty. I love, if you want to get your Bibles, turn to Psalm 73. I love what the psalmist says there. As you're turning there, you may want to go ahead and write down Philippians chapter 3. where Paul is talking about this. He says, you know what? When it comes to being a Jew, I could have been the poster boy. When it comes to being a Pharisee, poster boy. When it comes to living out the law and pursuing the law to the fullest extent, I was that guy. And what does he say? In conclusion, that stuff's rubbish. I'd rather have Jesus. My contentment is in Jesus. The psalmist says it in a very poetic way. Verse 25, Whom have I in heaven but you? And there is nothing on earth that I desire beside you. My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever. I love that phrase in verse 25, And there is nothing on earth that I desire beside you. I want you just to visualize for a moment what your life would look like in front of your families. If the man of the household was able to say, no matter what situation I am in, I am always content because I always have what I want. I have Jesus. No matter what circumstance I'm facing, no matter what situation I am in, no matter where I am at, I am always content whether I have a lot or a little. Whether I'm working or unemployed. Whether things are nice or things are not nice. Whether things are difficult or easy. It doesn't matter. I am always content. Why? Because I always have what I want. There is nothing on this earth that I desire. that eclipses my desire and my love and my admiration and my worship of Jesus Christ, my Lord and Savior. I am always content because I always have what I want. Him. And that's what Nicodemus had to learn. But he had to be reborn. That's what the woman, the well-learned, but she had to just take a sip. Jesus said, all you got to do is ask. If you knew who was talking to you, woman, you would ask what I'm giving you. And she does. She asks. And then he brings up, go get your husband. Great. Way to rip off the scab and see the blood flow again, Jesus. Thank you. But all Jesus needed to do with her was put her in touch with her thirst. You need to see that you've been trying to quench that thirst elsewhere. Brother, what area, what relationship, what job, what vocation have you been trying to quench your thirst in? Whatever it is, if it's not Jesus, It will ruin you. You will be like that woman at the well. Oh, you may not have five wives, but your journey, your search for thirst-quenching life will always be on the next thing, and once you acquire it, you'll find out it just magnifies, it compounds the thirst. So Jesus of living water comes around. He comes to us and says, you need contentment. I will give you contentment you will never want for anything else because you always have what you want. You pray that prayer. My heart's desire is that that will do that change within you. The third prayer, as you have been to me, so I will be to others. Every Sunday morning, I give a benediction and I recite Romans 15. May the God of endurance and encouragement grant you to live in harmony with one another, that together with one voice you may glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. And so, Paul talks about glorifying God the Father through Jesus Christ. And he says, therefore, based upon this, based upon who Jesus Christ is, welcome one another as Christ has welcomed you for the glory of God. When we pray this prayer, Heavenly Father, as you have been to me, as You have forgiven me, as You have poured Your grace upon grace out to me. As You have accepted me, may I treat others as You have treated me." Would that change your marriage? Would that change your work relationship? Would that change your neighborhood? I'll tell you this, if someone in my neighborhood, if I knew, if I'm not a believer, and someone that I knew of that lived five miles away lived this out, I'd want to move next door to them. Who wouldn't want to be treated like Jesus treats? Even the most cagey, jaded, calloused, committed atheist would love for people to be Jesus to them. And so we pray. in my relationships today, as you have been to me, as you have poured your grace out to me, as you have forgiven me, as you have loved me through all the barriers, through all the sin, as you have cared for me, so I will be to others. So I will be to others. The final part of the prayer. Father, as I live my life, I will measure your compassion by the cross and your power by the resurrection. The love that God has for us is measured by the cross. What thoughts go through your mind when it seems that God is not answering your prayers? I guarantee you this, if you have young children, and you as a family are praying for things, and they're praying for things, and it appears that God is not answering that prayer in the way that the child has asked, they're beginning They're beginning to have negative views of who God is. Maybe I need to be better. Maybe I need to try harder. Maybe I need to do something. Maybe He's angry with me. Maybe it's just general disfavor. But when all of a sudden we pray this part of the Gospel that, Father, I, as I live my life, I will measure Your compassion for me. not by how often you answer my prayers, not by how you bless my life with affluence, not by how you heal my marriage or bring my kids back. I will measure the love that you have for me by the ultimate goal, the ultimate test, the ultimate picture of that love, the cross. That is how I will gauge your love for me. And so I will measure that love by the cross and then the power The power of God is measured by the resurrection. When is it that we need God's power? How many of you men need God's power in your life? I need God's power. And when I say I need God's power, I'm saying I need a miracle. There are family issues, there are church issues, there are body issues. I just got a new knee about three months ago. Still breaking it in a little bit. So, I mean, I've got all this stuff going on. I need miracles. I need God's power. And that's church speak for, I could use a miracle. But when you read your Bibles, it's interesting, because when you read your Bibles, most of the time, not all the time, you'll be able to find some exceptions, but most of the time, when you read your Bibles, the miracles that happen didn't happen because God filled the people in advance. They happen because people trusted God. Let me give you a couple examples. You know the story of David and Goliath, right? God didn't say, David, tomorrow morning I want you to wake up and I want you to go take your lunch to your brother who's on the front lines, standing toe to toe against the Philistines. And you're going to hear this guy named Goliath, he's a giant, he's huge. He is standing there taunting the nation of Israel and I want you to get ticked. I want you to rise up with righteous indignation, and I want you to go to Saul and volunteer to go out and fight Goliath, mano a mano. When you do that, I want you to take your slingshot, go down to the crib, get five stones, not six, not four, five. I want you to load up your slingshot, let it fly, and it's going to hit Goliath in the forehead. He's going to get knocked out. You're going to take his sword and cut his head off. It's going to be awesome. Go do it. That's not what happened, right? How about Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego? Great story of the Bible. God did not come to them and say, hey, fellas, listen. Nebuchadnezzar, he's going to build a statue. He's going to force everyone in the land, when the trumpet blows, to everybody bow down and worship this statue. Don't you guys do it. It won't go well for you, though. You're going to get thrown into the fiery furnace, but don't worry. All the ropes, everything will be burned off. You'll come out unscathed. You won't have any burns. It's going to be really great. Just trust me. When you read about the miracles in Scripture, there are times when God says, when you do this, I will do this. But more often than not, God says, just trust me. And so when we're praying that I will measure your power, Almighty God, by the resurrection, is there anything greater than that? Is there a greater power than a man in the flesh succumbing to death and being confirmed dead by being tortured, bled out, buried for three days, and then under his own power, by his own volition, he goes one-on-one with death and kills it? Is there any greater power than that? And so, when we ask God to do great things for us, we are tapping into this God and talking to this God who took death on, so that now in John 8, Jesus says, Hey, listen, you believe in Me? Anybody, anybody who believes in Me, when death comes knocking, there will be no answer. They will not see death. Why? Because Christ sought death on our behalf. There are countless times in Scripture where all of a sudden God displays His power. Brothers, I truly believe that when you pray this prayer, and I'm not just saying say the word, this is not an incantation, it's not a chant, it's not yoga-like. When you sincerely pray this prayer on a regular basis, then something It sinks down to the core of who you are and it begins to well up outside of you. And all of a sudden the people that matter the most to you, those relationships, your spouse, your children, perhaps your girlfriends, that they begin to see things in you that can only be explained by the power of God. I triple dog dare any of you. Men can't turn down a triple dog. I don't think that this church, I don't think that RK Church or any other church can overemphasize the gospel. I don't think that we could ever say the gospel too much. Because Paul says in Romans 1, it's the power of God. That gospel is the power of God. And so when we embrace that gospel as pastor dads, As we embrace that gospel conspicuously in front of our spouses, in front of our classmates, in front of our teammates, in front of our children, things begin to happen that can only be attributed to the power and the beauty of God. If you're interested, I've got, I have these made up for our congregation. We've got some left over. We've got refrigerator magnets with the praying the gospel on there. You're welcome to take one if you'd like. I hope I have enough. I think I do. If I don't, I'll be glad to bring some more up for you guys. I am so honored and so blessed to be with you guys. Thank you. Whoever made the breakfast. Oh, my goodness. That's your wheelhouse. Thank you. I appreciate that. I'll close in prayer. Heavenly Father, have humbled ourselves before your mighty hand. It is easy for us as American men to stand on our own two feet, puff our chest out, and draw attention to what we have done. For those of us who have had some success, it's a huge temptation to fall into pride. For those of us who have experienced failure, it's a huge temptation to fall into despair. But Father, we recognize that those are just two different sides of the same coin called self-centeredness. May we be centered in You. May we, Father, even as we drive away from this place and go about our daily activities, as we come to church tomorrow and as on Monday we get back and we do what we do on Mondays and Tuesdays, may Your Gospel, Your good news be that for us that day. May it be for us, truly, good news. And Father, I pray for these men, because they have been called to be good news. The people that they encounter on a daily basis who do not know You, will You make these brothers good news to those people? We praise You. We thank You for the beauty and the power of Your Gospel. It's in the holy name of Christ that we pray, and all God's people said, Amen. Thank you. Thank you.