What I have been doing on Wednesday nights, the last time I was up here, is I wanted to teach on the church, its nature, its marks, and its purposes. I have been borrowing heavily from Wayne Grudem's Systematic Theology. The last lesson that I gave at the end of March, I had inserted a lot of my own outline, and so most of it is from him, but as I am afforded some opportunity and some time to sit down and write my own stuff, I may inject some of the stuff in there like I might do today. But we'll start with Grudem's definition of the church, which I have already, given before. In fact, let me pick your brain. How would you define the church? Or Grudem provides us with a definition of the church. Does anyone want to give it a shot as to what is the church? It could be in your own words what you think the church is, or what you think the Bible says the church is. Anyone? Saints who are called? The body of Christ, that's correct. Grudem's definition is this, the church is the community of all true believers for all time. Now the reason he words it this way is because there were believers in the past, there are believers in the present, and there will be believers in the future from our perspective. So the church as God sees it is made up of redeemed persons from the Old Testament and from the New Testament. One of the things that I added in there is that The church consists, of course, Jews and non-Jews, people from all ethnicities, and I provided Matthew 8, verses 11 and 12 to make that point. And then, of course, one of the more familiar ones, which is Revelation chapter five, wherein it says, worthy are you to take the scroll and to open its seals, for you were slain, and by your blood ransomed people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation. So, here's the main point today. The last time we talked about the church being both invisible and the church is also visible. Does anyone remember that lesson? Or maybe you heard it even before I gave it. What do I mean by that or what has been meant traditionally when the church has been described as both visible and invisible. Anyone want to try to answer that question? You guys are so excited tonight. All right, go ahead, Daniel. Well, I'm looking for a definition more specific. Yeah, I think that's part of it. Go ahead, Brother Raul. Yeah, we see you here. Yeah. Yeah, exactly. I think there's two. Did you get that? Did you hear that, Dent? Yeah. So like if you step into any congregation, it's going to be full of people or let me put it this way. You're like, not this church. You're going to see a mixture of people. Well, you're not going to see because you don't know who's saved and who isn't. You probably have an idea. Let me rephrase that. When you look into those who identify themselves with a church, be it this church or a church that has a lot of people in it, common sense, if you have any knowledge of the Bible, even a very small knowledge of the Bible, you should be able to reason that just because a person attends church, or rather just because even a person might participate and identify themselves as a member of a local congregation, it does not automatically follow that because of that person's identification with a local church. It doesn't mean that they actually know the Lord. There are churches everywhere that are full of unbelievers. And so from that perspective, when God looks at the church, the visible church, the people gathered as we see people here, only God knows those who are truly His. Only God has a kind of a vision that we don't have. Now granted, we pretty much have a good idea. who is probably saved and who isn't because Jesus told us as much that discernment would be able to help us distinguish between those who believe and those who don't believe, particularly false teachers. So we should draw the conclusion that we cannot know who is and who isn't saved. What I mean is that we cannot know the way God knows. Go ahead, Daniel. We always use the word unbeliever, but that's not necessarily makes a person I know a bunch of people, like my dad. Yeah. Well, I mean, an unbeliever in a saving way. Yeah. I don't mean just, because even the atheist is a believer, in a sense. He believes something in place of biblical Christianity. So the atheist, it's a specific unbelief. It's hard sometimes to describe people who don't know Christ in a saving way because the Bible uses different metaphors. And so it's Christian language. And when it falls upon the ears of maybe like outsiders, it can be confusing. A lot of people who are lost, they say, oh, I'm a believer. I believe in God. Well, if they don't believe Christ in a saving way, having repented and trusted Christ, according to the Bible, they're unbelievers. because they don't know Christ, they're not saved. So the language and the labeling can be kind of tricky. Is that what you're referring to? I think you gave us a list where you said that invisible was the church's God. That's right. And the visible is we as Christians. The way we see each other, yeah. And it's also invisible in that it refers also to the church universal, which we'll talk about. Meaning, is the church in heaven right now? Yeah, members of the church are there, those who have died in Christ before us. We don't see them, but God sees them. So the church invisible, the church visible. That was the last lesson. I uploaded it today finally to Sermon Audio. Now, so here is what I want to talk about today. There are two different ways to see the church. The local church, L-O-C-A-L, not loco, the local church. And then, what's the other one? The universal church. So the Bible teaches that when the scriptures employ the term church, it uses it in both ways. So let's just jump right into the scriptures and let me demonstrate. So here's the first point. I'm gonna say, and I got it from Grudem, but I worded it my own way, the house church, the house church. Okay, so we're looking at Romans chapter 16. Now here's what I'm demonstrating tonight. I hope for you to see this, that the church meets in different places and the church is referred to in different ways according to, well, we see the church in a different context. That's not the right words. I don't know why I'm struggling to, you'll see it here in a minute. We'll start with the church that is the local church, okay? And the first thing I'd like to bring to your attention is the house church. The house church. I said Romans chapter 16, right? Now, in our culture, house churches can be very suspect in the eyes of the secular world, because when Americans think of church, they almost always associate it with a building that is specifically designed or erected for religion, such as a church building. This was not originally built as a church building. This was a cleaning where they brought dry cleaners, but people still bring dirty laundry and that's okay. But, that joke's getting old, but it was eventually fixed so that we could meet here. But according to the Bible, the building isn't the church, even though there's nothing wrong when people say, I'm going to go mow the grass at the church. People know I mean the building, not that I'm gonna give the saints a haircut with my weed eater. It means the building. So that's perfectly normal usage and acceptable usage. But when it comes to the Bible specifically, when the Bible uses the word church, it's a reference to the saints of God, the people of God. Not merely the gathered people of God as in corporate worship, but just them as a family. Where do they meet? Well, we have in Scripture that they met in homes. Did they meet only in homes? Well, no. They met in different places. Eventually, with time, they began to build churches and buildings as Christianity was no longer outlawed and Christians weren't being persecuted. But originally, the early church met in homes, and we find references to the house church. When we started as a church, we were not a house church, we were an apartment church. And then we initially, at the very, very beginning, we started meeting in an apartment where Leti and I lived, and then we went to Odom, and we were in a home that was bigger, and then Church of Grace, in a sense, we started having services in our living room, and then We went to a commercial building and then now we're over here. But we had difficulty when we were meeting in my home because people thought we were a cult. And we just didn't have a place to meet and we didn't really have a need for it at the time because we were just starting out and we're trying to get started. And I remember a few individuals, I remember I ran into somebody and I asked them to come to church and he asked, Well, where is the church? And I said, well, everyone's working right now and people are at school, but we meet on Sundays. It was Smarty Pants, right? Now, I said, well, actually, we meet in my home. And he goes, oh, no, no, no, no, no. I'd rather go to a real church. That's what he told me, to a real church. And then he caught himself when he said it. What I mean is like a traditional church. And so, but he had slipped. And so that revealed, that showed me that in his mind, a house, go ahead, Brother Lynn. Pastor Chris, have you seen a thing called the Home Church Movement? Yeah, yeah. I don't know much about it, but the little that I've heard from it, they seem to have views, unless you're referring to a different movement. From the little that I've heard, it's been some years, it's actually a particular philosophy where they think that it is a more pure form of meeting, to meet in someone's home versus to go out into a building. And so they have this kind of, this is a purer form of church. Is that about right? Well, yeah, I don't know. They're big in the New England area. And the pastors are generally happy to have them in their home church and not in the pew because of their, shall we say, colorful convictions. Yeah, I don't know what you're referencing. I don't know about the New England one, but I have heard of house churches, like a house church movement, and their theology is a little bit troublesome. It's probably not that one, but like I said, this was years ago, because I think there was a few individuals who had asked if we were a part of that, and I said, no. I said, I want these people out of my house as soon as we can find a building, and I'd like to go into a building for practical reasons, Well that goes back to what I was saying, that they have this more pure form of, they think they are a purer form And their justification is the early church met in homes. And so therefore we're biblical by meeting in homes too. So here it is Romans. So there's absolutely nothing wrong with meeting in a home. You can be a legitimate, Jesus-loving, Christ-centered, God-approved church in someone's home. The problem is those who identify with house churches or home churches, sometimes their theology is not good. So it's not the fact that they're meeting in the home, it's what's being preached in the home, that's the problem. And so we need to make a distinction between the two. So Romans chapter 16, verse five. Well, we can read at verse 3 so you could get somewhat of the context here. This is the ending of the Book of Romans where Paul traditionally starts to say, you know, give his greetings and all of that, and he says, my fellow workers in Christ Jesus, who rest their necks for my life, to whom not only I give thanks, but all the churches, plural, all the churches of the Gentiles give thanks as well. Greet also the church in their house. So, is it Prisca or Prisca? It's, I'm not really sure. I'd have to go to the audio Bible and see how it's pronounced. Prisca and Aquila, So apparently they have a house church. That's not the only time that it is mentioned. For example, in 1 Corinthians chapter 16, let's turn there very quickly. 1 Corinthians chapter 16, it's the very next book. Again, the Apostle Paul, he usually mentions people towards the end of the letter in his greetings. This is page 963. And it reads in verse 19, the churches of Asia send you greetings. Aquila and Prisca together with the church and their house, there it is again, send you hearty greetings in the Lord. So we see from scripture and we know from history that the early church Initially, they met in people's homes. There's different reasons for this. I'm not inclined to believe that they met in homes because of a particular theology about having church in a house. I believe it was strictly for practical purposes. In the beginning, the church was being persecuted, and so they met secretly. Not to mention the fact that there weren't any official buildings for Christianity. So I do believe it was just merely out of practical reasons. I don't think that we should develop a theology that leads us to believe that the pure form of church is when you stay home on Sunday and worship God there. I think that would be theologically erroneous to draw that kind of conclusion because we also see the city church. That one I'll go through very quickly because you already know this. When Paul mentions the church in some letters, he means the entire body of believers within a particular city. I don't know that it means, I don't think it means that each city had only one church and was allowed only one church. So if there was a Baptist church in that city, you couldn't build second Baptist. You had to be first Baptist only. I don't think it means that I just, I think again in the beginning when the church first started, I think that citywide the believers met together. I think you could make the argument that sometimes the congregation split up for practical reasons. Like you had the Greek-speaking believers initially, and then you had the Hebraic Jews who spoke Hebrew. And so for practical purposes, one might need instruction in Greek. The others might need instruction in the other language. What do you think, Brother Lynn? Yeah, because you know sometimes people get criticized or churches because sometimes the church reflects the demographic of the community so that you might have in a community people who speak only only English but then you might have people in a community that speak only like Korean or Chinese, and so you have another church within a bigger church with a separate pastor, a separate congregation, and so like you might have a Korean congregation meeting in a bigger church that's predominantly English, and they do that for practical reasons. They need to hear the gospel and scriptural teaching in their own language, and so they get their own pastor, but it's still one church, and they're divided by language. Not that they're divided spiritually or theologically, And so you might have that. It happens also with Spanish and English congregations and bigger churches. And it's really all for practical reasons. I don't think there's a theology of racism where you gotta keep the people separate. That's not what is happening at all. So the city church, when you open the book of Corinthians, Paul addresses the church of God that is where? In Corinth. When he writes to the Thessalonians, he addresses them as the church of the Thessalonians. So now we have a reference to a house church, meeting in a house of Prisca and Aquila, and then we have an entire body of believers in a particular city, city church, and then you have regional church. Now, I'm not talking about forms of churches, so don't think that I'm saying there needs to be a hierarchy, there needs to be a local church in a house, and then that house church answers to the city church, and then the city church answers to the regional church. That is not at all what I'm talking about. What I am talking about is the word church in the Bible is applied for different congregations. Do you understand what I'm saying? So I don't think, because I think some denominations historically have built sort of a hierarchy based on town, city, region, state, and you have this denominational hierarchy, and the church is governed in that respect, but that's not what I'm talking about. I'm simply talking about how does the Bible use the word church? And the answer is it uses it of a house church. It uses it of a church in a particular city. It uses it for the church in a certain region, all of the believers together. Hold on Leti. So let me give you the scripture Acts chapter 9. Leti, am I going too fast back there? Oh, you're right there, Acts chapter nine. So Acts chapter nine, verse 31, if anyone would like to read it loudly so that, Acts chapter nine, verse 31. Now I want you to make note of the singular usage of the word church, because earlier it says all the churches of Asia greet you, Asia as a region. But he says, all the churches of Asia greet you. And Paul is referencing all the individual local churches together were greeting the Romans. But here he uses the word church in singular form. Do you see that? So if someone would like to read it, Acts chapter 9, verse 31. OK, go ahead, Sophie, read it. Hold on, it's Acts chapter 9 verse 31. So the church throughout all Judea and Galilee and Samaria had peace and was being built up. And walking in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Spirit, it multiplied. So you see how it's talking about not a house, it's talking about not a particular city, it's talking about several areas. It's talking about Judea, which is a region, Galilee, Samaria, but it's all of the believers in those different regions collectively are referred to as the church, singular. So how does the New Testament use the word church? It refers to gathered believers under someone's home, It refers to believers in a certain city. It refers to believers in a certain region. Then there is I don't think Grudem has a name for this, but he referenced it. So I'm calling it world church. Not worldly church. There's those two. I simply mean world church. I'm reasoning that if the house church can be extended to the city church or the church can be extended to the region, then we can extend it to the world because the Bible says that Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her. Now does that mean only the house church? That Jesus gave himself up only for the house church or maybe just a region or maybe go ahead Daniel. Oh I thought you were raising your hand. So we can reason right that when the Bible says that Christ loved the church, what church is in view there? Which kind of church is he referring to? the world, but past, present, and future. So that usage is what we would call the church universal. Let me grab this whiteboard real quick. Now I know that there is some debate about the usage, and I know the Roman Catholic Church doesn't like it. Sometimes if you read anything about maybe history or the church history theology, you might notice that The markers are dry from time to time on Wednesdays. Cause Sylvia, no I'm just kidding. I'm kidding. I'm totally kidding. Okay. What's the difference there? What's the difference? The capital is the difference. You have church and then you have church. Now, why? would one be capitalized and the other would not be capitalized? And it's not an English grammar question. You wouldn't say, well, because this is the beginning of a sentence. That's not the reason. This is more, this is a theological distinction. Doesn't anyone want to take a guess? We already kind of have the answer. Now the scriptures don't do this because Brother Lynn knows Greek. Is it written in all the same caps? Well, not that there's caps in Greek text, but, huh? Yeah, the original manuscripts, they don't have capital letters and lowercase letters. It's just all written. But in English, when we want to make distinctions, we have to change the letter somewhat. So some people in theology, When they want to make a distinction between the church of all time, like we're talking about the universal church as we've defined it, they capitalize the C. But when you refer to the church that is local, so this is just kind of a side note. Now, I don't think it'd be good to do this, I don't know, I'm not a biblical scholar, but I don't know if everyone has even conceded the idea of in the scripture, because they do it in other places, like when the church universal is in view, that would be interesting, right, Brother Lenton? Like Christ died, Christ loved the church, capital C, that'd be interesting in an English Bible to see that distinction, but then at that point, you're engaging in interpretation rather than just translating. and the text, so I could see how it could be troublesome. So let's go to Ephesians 5.25. Go ahead. We're still on this topic, by the way, so go ahead. Yeah. Uh-huh. That's a good question. Or is it just the leader? The church needs a pastor. Every... Every gathering of saints absolutely need, by God's design, a pastor or pastors, plural. If they find themselves with no pastor or a shortage of pastors, it's not intentional, it's because that's just the way it is for now. For example, when Paul writes to Timothy, or is it Titus, he says, and this is why I left you in Crete. that you might appoint elders. or that you might fill what is lacking. So he acknowledges that a congregation without elders is something that they're lacking. And he says, so that you might, and I'm paraphrasing here, I think it's Timothy or Titus, because it's from one of the pastoral epistles. And he says, this is why I left you in Crete. Now I wanna look it up, because it's bothering me. But this answers your, yeah, it's Titus. He says, this is why I left you in Crete, so that you might put what remained like something that's unfinished. Other translations I think they say what you might feel what is lacking. And he says, this is why I left you in Crete so that you might put what remained into order and appoint elders in every town as I directed you. So the church there is not just merely a house, it's elders over a town, the church, the believer is there. And so apparently what's obvious there is they were lacking elders. It wasn't by design. So to answer your question, I don't know the... that a church meets in a home, it doesn't necessarily follow that the homeowner is the pastor. It might just be a rich Christian who has the space and provides his home for believers to meet. So does that, masomenos, answer your question? Yeah. And the reason that I ask is because, funny enough, I saw a video this past week that had to do with- The home or house church movement? Yeah. And the guy that presented the video, actually got into that and from what I understood from what he was saying was that he might be somebody that has the wrong theology because he was saying that he never mentions pastors so in a sense you don't really need... Yeah, yeah, we used to meet a long time ago in a building that was a church and the leaders, it was a building that was on the property of a residence, and the leaders of that church, they didn't, I mean, they really got upset when you mentioned this, but they were very anti-establishment, and they really, what would be the word, they really did not like the idea of someone standing up while others sat down, and for that person to be the primary speaker. They didn't like the idea of an authority figure It was everyone is the same and everyone is equal. And so they got rid of the pulpit and they set up the church in a circle so everyone could have like an equal say, but they disdained, that's the idea. So the idea of a pastor presiding over these people who identify themselves as believers, they really disdained that idea. And it goes back to just bad theology. Again, I think these passages are more descriptive Like the end, the church that is in your house, I think it's circumstantial. I think it's for practical reasons. I don't think it's a passage that we should take and make it prescriptive, as in Paul is saying, you need to do church this way. And so it goes back to hermeneutics. Now, Yeah, yeah, going back to Ephesians chapter five. Oh man, I wish I had time to go into some of the other stuff that I have here that I thought about that's not in Grudems. I'm sorry, I give you the wrong scripture. Let's go to 1 Corinthians chapter 12, 28. What time is it? I can't see the clock. 7.45, okay, this would probably be the last point. And we'll go into the metaphors of the church next week. This will take up the rest of the time. 1 Corinthians chapter 12. This is an interesting discussion. Ask yourself, when the Bible says that God appointed in the church first apostles, is the reference to church there, is it universal or is it local? First Corinthians, I bet you didn't think about that. First Corinthians chapter 12. Yeah, First Corinthians chapter 12. page 959, verse 27 says this, now you are the body of Christ, that's what you said earlier, Sylvia, that the church is the body of Christ, and individually members of it, so referring to persons, and God has appointed in the church, now the question here is, is it the local church, or is it the church universal? Because, If you think it means the local church, then now you need apostles here, and now you need prophets. Because God has appointed, so... There are some people who interpret it as the local church. And so therefore, every church should have apostles and prophets and like the apostolic movement. That's why they're called apostolic because they believe that the pastor is like a form of an apostle. They have other, but that's their least of their issues. There's the whole one is theology that they promote. But let's read the rest of it. And God has appointed in the church first apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then miracles, then gifts of healing, helping, administrating, and various kinds of tongues. Have we been learning from an apostle tonight? Yeah, we have. I mean, he's not here, but he left us his writings, and so he's teaching this congregation, even though he's not physically here, but I'm speaking from his writing. So this church is still benefiting from the apostolic ministry of Paul. Go ahead, Brother Gilbert. Yeah, that's another good distinction because Brother Gilbert brings up another point and that is that some people say that the Bible teaches that there are Apostles, and then there are apostles. And this one refers to the 12. And these, I don't know how many there are, but these refer to people who are not apostles like the 12, but they are a different kind of apostle. And the reason is the Bible does refer to some people as being among the apostles. And I think, I don't remember what verse it is, but I heard someone mention that verse and I was thinking, I might be wrong, I was thinking, I think it means that that person was a ministry worker who worked in the company of the apostles, not among a list of apostles. And so again, interpretation. Go ahead, Brother Gilbert. Yeah, yeah, because that's what the word apostle means it means one who is sent that's what it literally means And so I think you could you could argue biblically That the Bible teaches that there are apostles beyond the 12, but I would say that the apostles the 12 hold a very unique and ministry that will always be different and distinguishable from whatever other apostles there might be. Go ahead, Brother Lynn. So, you know, so in a very qualified sense, I mean, we want to engage in apostolic ministry here. And by that, I mean the teaching that is faithful to the apostles who themselves were faithful to the teaching of Christ. So in that sense, we know we had to preach an apostolic gospel. We have an apostolic Bible. And so if we use it in the right sense. So God has appointed in the church first apostles. It doesn't mean that every single local church needs to have an apostle or that every single church a prophet and but then the interpretation gets a little bit troublesome because then you have the rest of the other offices and that gets into gifts and all of that, but that's just something that I brought up for you to think about. I don't have time to continue the rest of it, but that really brings to an end tonight's message that I was primarily focusing on getting you to see how the word church takes different forms in the New Testament, and it refers to a different kind of gathering of believers in a house, city, region, church universal. Huh? Campuses. Yeah, if you would consider where Paul rented the hall of, starts with a T. You remember that, Brother Lynn? When the apostle Paul, I don't know that you would call it a church, it was more like an evangelistic event, I don't know. In the book of Acts, do you guys know what I'm talking about? The Hall of Tyrannus, there you go. Yeah, in the book of Acts, Paul went into primarily, predominantly a Gentile city, Gentile believers, and the Bible says that he reached out every single day and he rented the Hall of Tyrannus, which is a public meeting place I'm not really sure what they call it that I think I did research on a long time ago and find out, but I've already since forgotten. And the Bible says he met there daily and he taught the word of God from, so he met in a public meeting place. So again, we see them meeting. The first Jewish church, they met at the temple. You know, the apostles, that's where they taught. I have a question. Go ahead. about the meeting on the first day. Were they meeting on the first day of the week, which is Sunday, because of the tradition of the temple? That's a really good question. Leti is asking that it has been the tradition of the Christian Church, even to the very first Jewish Christians, to not meet on the Sabbath, but rather to meet on the first day of the week, which is Sunday. So Sunday in ancient times was the first business day of the week. Hours is Monday is the first business day of the week because traditionally the seventh day, which is Saturday, Sabado, right? Was the seventh day, the final day of the week. When I first became a believer, this is what I thought. I came up with this on my own, didn't read it anywhere, but I've since learned a little bit more. my mind worked this way. I was reading the Bible and I was reading, we were talking about I was like a year or two saved and I read all the first Christians were Jewish. Number one and then secondly because they had embraced Jesus as Lord and Savior they got kicked out of the synagogue. So they can't go to the synagogue anymore. and they were kicked out of the temple, and they can't meet during that day either because of their Jewish, their cultural Jewish custom, which is, it's the Sabbath. So I thought that for practical reasons, and of course the biggest reason is Jesus rose on the first day of the week. Somehow, I don't know all the details, but somehow it became the accepted tradition of the church to meet on the first day of the week. In fact, in Corinthians, when Paul is addressing the gathered church, he mentions, when you are gathered on the first day of the week, here's what you're supposed to do. And he's talking about a certain contribution to the saints. So Paul mentions Sunday. But there is no scripture in the New Testament, unless Brother Lynn knows of one that says, thou shalt meet on day one, right? There's all kinds of reasons given, but I don't know that there's a definitive one that really just answers it all. Some people have said, well, day seven is a rest from your six days of work. So the six days of work refers to the old creation, the seventh day of rest, which is Christ, and then you meet on the first day of the week, which is new creation. So there's some theology there, but I don't really know, Lati, what is the answer. Do you, Brother Lynn? Well, I don't think, it's not definitive. Yeah. Yeah, but that's been, there are some organizations who call themselves Christians that they're actually very dogmatic about it, like the Seventh-day Adventist, and they are all about, if you do not meet, now there's two different versions because they split off, but the Seventh-day Adventist, the traditional form says, if you do not meet on Saturday for corporate worship in a Seventh-day Adventist church, you cannot be saved. In fact, if you meet on Sunday, that's proof that you have the mark of the beast and you worship the beast. Because worshiping on the first day of the week, which is Sunday, is the mark of the beast. And so that's cultic and extreme. So yeah, there are people who have become very dogmatic about that. The Jehovah's Witnesses, they also meet on Saturday. I don't know what their particular rationale is for that. yeah they're sort of kind of related yeah so go ahead daniel uh yeah church of grace is actually kind of up in the air about meeting on wednesday nights yeah you don't have to come if you don't want to daddy knows how to push my buttons i was thinking earlier we were talking about you have to have a church i was thinking And we're really blessed because we have a pastor for every 6.5 people in our church. Yeah, you're highly blessed. Yeah. I need you to stay at the church, Daniel, so we can talk about your gift of encouragement. No, I'm just kidding. He's just following my example. No. But yeah, we don't have to meet on Wednesday night because there isn't a prescribed day. But we're going to meet on Wednesday night because, you know, I think it's good, and I don't think Sunday morning is enough time to provide instruction, and so Wednesday nights can be, they are a defying, it's hard work, but I can't think. Talk about how Church of Grace is thinking of doing Sunday night service. Sunday night service. I'm just kidding. Danny was like, what? Yeah? I can't see that far, I don't have glasses, so I'm just messing with you. Yeah, you know what, I will tell you this, I told Leti, I told Leti, because we had this conversation, and I said, Leti, If I didn't have to work two jobs outside of the church and got to devote myself fully to this church, I would have no problem with the Sunday night service. We could accomplish so much in teaching and preparation and provide more, even though we don't have a lot of people, I think it's, but I just, I cannot see myself just adding, you know, I mean, I'm already struggling. Go ahead, Brother Lynn. Oh, I was just going to observe that in the Middle East, they meet on Thursday night. That's their corporate worship. They won't meet on Sunday. They'll meet on Thursday night. And I would guess, is it for practical reasons that have to do with culture, surroundings? Well, they can't meet on Sunday. Everybody's working. Yeah. It's a work day. Yeah, because it's not a Christian culture. Yeah, Friday you can't meet because Islam has had, that's their holy day. Yeah. You want to be like them. So the only really time is Thursday evening after work. Yeah. And that's what I'm talking about. like your meeting time is determined by religious and cultural factors that force you to meet, you know, even in some countries where you meet, like the early Christians in the catacombs, you know? So I believe that, you know, in America, Ariela and I and the kids, we were talking about this some time ago. I don't know if she remembers about, what is it? Is it blue laws, blue state laws, or? Yeah, you couldn't engage in commerce on Sunday because of Christianity a long time ago. It was out of reverence and respect for God that whether you believed or not, you don't open your place of business on Sunday. You close your place of business so that those who might be working for you who are Christians, you allow them to go to church. Because it was viewed, people who go to church are generally better people. That was the view, that is the view. And it makes for good citizens. And out of reverence and respect for God, you don't engage in commerce. So go ahead, Daniel. Yeah. And you know what, Daniel? Yeah. And you know, some businesses argue that they have to stay open on Sunday for financial reasons. And it's funny because Chick-fil-A, they outperform all of the fast food chain restaurants, and that's because they're closed one day out of the week. And the other businesses have 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and they still can't get ahead of Chick-fil-A. So they're like proof that that's not even true. Yeah. All right, let's close in prayer. I don't know what time it is, but I'm guessing it's about seven, hopefully. I was talking about a different time zone. Sylvia, why do you always have to assume? All right, let's pray. Heavenly Father, once again, we thank you for your word. We thank you for the freedom that we have in Christ, but the freedom that we enjoy in this country. We're so, so privileged. We're so blessed, Lord. We've met here in an air-conditioned building and comforted seating. None of us have to walk home. We're going to enjoy a comfortable ride, an air-conditioned vehicle. And we're so privileged, Lord. I think that it's so easy to take these things for granted, especially tonight as we've talked about believers around the world who aren't as privileged. And so help us to not ever be spoiled, Lord, or take these things for granted, but to always be grateful for the things that we enjoy as Americans. Help us to not be spiritually lazy or any of these things. And bless Church of Grace, Lord. Add more people that your word might spread more and more in Jesus' name. And everyone says, amen. Thank you guys. Have a great night.