I haven't seen in a while. You have as your pastor, I can say this because he's not here, a man who really knows the word of God and has a lot of wisdom in terms of living our lives and shepherding. He really cares for the sheep. That's the man that you have. And I'm thrilled personally that this anchor has been placed And I hope you are too. This is just the beginning. And I really foresee that in due time these pews will be filled should God be so gracious as to add to these numbers. I love the fact that the name of this church you have chosen is Gospel of Grace. How needed. All Christians everywhere contribute to the body of Christ, and we should not throw rocks at each other. But the gospel of grace is a needed voice in all communities, but also in this community. And you have chosen a name that, When he told me the name of it, I had just memorized Acts 20, 24, where Paul says that he considers his life of no meaning other than he can finish the race and complete the task which God has given him, the task of testifying to the gospel of God's grace. The Apostle Paul was all about the gospel, and that's what we are all about. But it's got that dual need for the sheep to be shepherded. Who is Mike that needs the job? Who is that? Your mic? Oh, okay. You're the one that needs a job. All right. You know, that's part of what this is all about. You have a family praying for you. I pray that that interview goes well tomorrow, that it'd be more than just a routine encounter, that God would really show up and do something wonderful there. And if not, on the surface of things, give you the grace to know that it had a purpose and a meaning. And that's what our family can do for each other, to pray when they're in needs. There's a church inside prison as well. That's why I'm partly here to report that God is alive and well in the institutions of our country and using that very painful place to meet people who didn't give him the right time of day on the streets. But God arrested them. We actually even have a Bible that says rescued, not arrested. And I'm an old dude now, but I started this when I was 33. God brought me back into jail. I've done much more time as a Christian now than I ever did as a non-Christian. And what a joy. Paul says in his, when he's speaking to the Corinthians, that woe to me if I do not preach the gospel, because Paul was all about the gospel, that gospel of grace, so excited about it. But I feel like woe to me if I don't keep going to jail. I'm retired from the paycheck now, but I go to two institutions every single week, Chester County Jail and Delaware County Jail. I go to a state prison only a couple times a year. But I stayed doing this because this is what God wired me to do and prepared me to do. And he's got that same identical task for you, not meaning prison. I once actually ran into an inmate once who was reluctant to come to Christ. And when I stopped at his cell one day and I asked him, you know, what is it? I can see that you've got a heart for God. You know, why? Why are you holding back on giving your all for him? He says, well, I'm not really sure I want to come back into jail and preach the gospel. And it never dawned on me that I was his only visible example of what a Christian does. And this Christian was going to jail all the time. And he really didn't feel up to coming back to prison. And he thought becoming a Christian meant that he would have to go to jail again. And, you know, it seems funny to us that he would think that. We are the examples of what Christ is. That guy that was singing, Gary, that reminded me of an inmate. The guy that was singing in your workplace, annoying you, but somehow you still remember that. And that must have been part of the story that led you to Christ. A happy Christian singing. I actually knew, it made me think of, and I'm not going to rattle on with stories, I hope. If I do, forgive me. But I actually knew a young man in prison. He was part of a Spanish gang in the city that was near this prison. And he was a pretty tough kid. And he was in prison and he was full of anger and rebellion towards authority. And especially when he got to prison, it really showed up in his interactions with the officers. And one in particular, it was like, Think of some great antagonists, you know, Sherlock Holmes and Moriarty. It was kind of like that, you know, it was like the Joker and Batman, you know, it was like they were just enemies. And every time this officer saw him, he would get angry with him. And every time Philip saw him, he would antagonize him. And so there was this constant war between the two especially. Well, he started attending Bible studies and eventually became a Christian, a really thoroughly converted Christian. And he would sing in the middle of the night. Now, you get a picture of this. We're on a cell block, and there are cells all around him, facing him and all the way down on the side. And men and women in prison like to get their sleep. And at 2 o'clock in the morning, Praise God from whom all blessings, in Spanish, you know. And I'd say 70% of the guys didn't speak Spanish. The other 30% did. But he got away with it because his reputation was so profound on that block that nobody was going to mess with. And so they got to hear hymns in the middle of the night like Paul and Silas kind of thing. And so I'm sure they annoyed some Gary's in that group. But the big thing that began to change was his relationship with authority. He became a citizen of another country, and this country asked us to submit to our leaders, to those who are in authority over us. And you would think that this angry, rebellious kid would not pay much heed, especially there's a, there's a real, antagonism between the officers and the inmates. And that's constant. And it's actually part of the code. You just grumble against the officers and the officers grumble about the inmates. But things began to change with Philip. He, for one thing, he changed his gang name. His gang name used to be Face. Don't ask me why, I don't know. And one time I saw him on the outside and I said, hey, Face. He says, you know, Lenny? The old has gone, the new has come. I don't use that name anymore. And he wanted to be called Philippe. Anyways, I was standing at a cell one day. We were going over some scripture. And this is on the tier. The tier is that long hallway where all the cells are. And so everybody around you can kind of hear your conversation. Well, that particular officer came by. And Philippe, as he went by, he yelled out, officer, I love you and Jesus loves you too. And I go, whoa, and the guy just kept walking. Two weeks later, I'm at a cell again and that same officer walked by. And the officer stopped. And now you got to figure, months have gone by. So this officer has observed whether Philippe's conversion was momentary or not. And he came over and he whispered in my ear and he said, I don't know what you did to that guy, but keep on doing it. He's changed. And as he walked away, of course, Philippe had to tell him, Officer, I love you, and Jesus loves you, too. And I saw the officer later, and I said, you know, I've got to correct the record. I didn't do anything to him. Jesus Christ changed his life. He says, well, whatever it was, keep on doing it. So anyway, that's a little bit of a story. But I just want you to know that we do have a dual citizenship, don't we? And I'm probably not the only man who's getting up on this Sunday morning using this text, reminding Christians that we are citizens of heaven. And I thank the prayer that was so on target in reminding us that we are citizens of heaven, that we do serve a new government. But we still have an obligation to the temporary location that we're in. And we're coming up on a difficult election. And every election has consequences. And I thank you for the prayers for that. Gwen knows I like looking at dates and numbers. On this day, 157 years ago, November 6th, Abraham Lincoln was elected president of the country, and it had immediate consequences. Within months, 13 states of the union had pulled up and out of the union, and the country went to war with itself within months of his election. So we look at this election and we say, oh boy, can anything good come out of this? But the scriptures clearly tell us that God is subduing all things under his control. There was a man who followed as best he could his conscience and the scriptures as far as we can tell. And the country, many Christians on both sides, was costly. 650,000 people lost their lives in that war. And now they're thinking it was even higher than that. Consequences. Christian against Christian. Surely some were saying, Lord, where are you in this? Which side are you on? But what was the outcome of that? Slavery was abolished as a result of that sacrifice and the union was preserved. Brothers and sisters, we're at another juncture. And even though it looks dim in terms of leadership, God is at work. And as citizens of the kingdom of God, I say keep on keeping on. I pray that you will vote. We have a part to play individually and collectively. This is called the Gospel of Grace Church. And you are going to have a collective witness in this community. If you would turn to Philippians chapter 3. I have three points today, like all good preachers. And just not to discourage you, we're probably going to spend 80% of it on the first point. So when we're done the first point, you know we're almost 20% to the finish line. So be of good cheer. I will take up in verse 20, 21, and verse 1 of chapter 4. Each of those three verses has one of the points. The first one is, verse 20, but our citizenship is in heaven as opposed to those whose minds are on earthly things, in verse 19. Our citizenship is in heaven and from it we await a savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. Our citizenship is in heaven. Your church is now called the Gospel of Grace. Paul is all about the gospel, the good news of Jesus Christ. That's what a church is. It's a collection of believers who believe that gospel. To understand Paul, you just have to say the word gospel. He considers everything a loss apart from knowing Jesus Christ is Lord and our Lord and declaring his good news. He told the Romans, I'm not ashamed of the gospel of Jesus Christ. He begins his letter by saying that. Because in the gospel is the power of God to save anyone who will believe. So our message is the good news of Jesus Christ. That's what the church declares, that God loved us so much that he sent his only son. who became a man never losing his deity, died on a cross for our sins, was buried and rose again on the third day, and whoever believes has eternal life. A lot of people know that story up here. But don't grab it here. One thing about prison ministry is that you're never too old to keep declaring the gospel. I'm 72 years old now. I was 33 when I started this. And you would think, how can a young man in his late teens or mid-teens listen to a 72-year-old guy? They not only listen to me, they listen with tears in their eyes. Mucus coming from their nose because they're sobbing, because they need an answer for their life. They're in pain. Prison is all about pain. But the Bible says it is better to go to a funeral parlor than a party because death is the end of every man and the living should take this to heart. Ecclesiastes 7-2, slightly paraphrased. But that's what prison is. It's a funeral parlor. It's a loss. They've lost everything, many times their reputation, often their wives, their families. Their esteem, everything is gone. And along comes this smiley-faced Christian with a Bible in his hand telling him that Jesus has not forgotten them. And the floodgates flow past the defiance in their eyes and they break down to a 72-year-old man. Because it's not the cover on the magazine that they need. It's what's inside it. I tell them I'm only a messenger. And I'm here to tell you, God has not forgotten you, though they feel like everybody else has. And that's our message. I knew an inmate who was a big drug runner up in Canada, and we used to go up to their prisons and talk to the Canadian inmates, and we'd have the ex-cons come down to the U.S. and talk in our prisons. And I remember I had Dave Hardy come down, and Dave Hardy, Hard to overestimate how many drugs and how much territory he sold drugs in in Canada. Thoroughly converted man, as was his wife, and he stood up in our prisons up in New England, and the first words out of his mouth were, I am not ashamed of the gospel of Jesus Christ because it is the power of God to save anyone who will believe. First for the Jew and then for the Gentile, and he says, and it included me. Jesus Christ has changed my life. In the gospel is the power of God and the righteousness of God is revealed. The whole world is looking for a way to get to God and the gospel says it's not by your deeds, it's by the deeds of God, the grace of God. He sent his son. I read just this morning as I was studying John, they asked Jesus what should we do to do the works that God requires, John 6, 29. He says the work of God is this. You want to know and I would say everybody should be listening up. Jesus is going to tell us what the work of God is, what it is that he requires. And his answer was to believe in the one he has sent. Jesus Christ is who we are all about. That's what the gospel is all about. And that's what we are all about. Paul said, Jesus didn't send me to baptize, that's what he told the Corinthians, but to preach the gospel. He told his disciples, Timothy and Titus, preach the word, preach the word, preach the gospel, the whole gospel, not leaving anything out of it, and only this gospel. He told the Galatians that if anybody preaches you a gospel other than this gospel, let them be accursed. There is only one gospel, only one solution for us. You must believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. Lord, I'm a needy sinner. I feel like Paul when he gives his own testimony. He says, I was a violent, blasphemous man, but God had mercy on me. That's what I was, a violent, blasphemous man, and God had mercy on me. I go to prison today because I was a prisoner when I was a young man, and I had a pastor when I first became a Christian who said, why don't you go into prison and see if God might not use your experience? And I doubted that very serious. I did not want to go back to jail any more than that inmate I told you about earlier. But I went because my pastor said I should at least expose myself to that ministry. So I went. And my first time there, all I heard was, The yelling on the tears, the intercom that never works, the clanging of the doors, that singular noise that it makes when the gate's shut. And all my emotions and all the bells in my emotions were rung again. And I left there saying, Lord, I thank you that you're not calling me into anything like this. But on the way out, this very mild-mannered chaplain with big black rimmed glasses. I think mine are dark, but you should have seen his. He didn't understand half the things the inmates were saying because they were just jiving, and he didn't get their language, but he loved them. He loved them. He saw them the way society did not see them, and they responded to him. And on the way out, he said, Lenny, I need someone to play the music for me, the guitar, because I don't have anybody to play on a Sunday night service for my meeting with the men. And I was an ex-hippie. I went through a hippie stage, and all hippies know how to play three chords, C, D, and G, and they work forever on F, you know. But I could play, you can play a lot of songs with C, D, and G. And so I don't know why I said yes, but I did. My second time back, I saw them. They were there the first time, but I was just getting emotionally run up by what I had heard and seen. But the second time back, I was past that, and I saw them. And brothers and sisters, I've never looked back since. That was February of 1977. That's what he wired me to do, to preach the gospel to men and women in prison. Your role is to preach the gospel at, just like your buddy did, maybe just singing a song. He was doing his job, and you're doing your job. I pray that you get a job where you will be a light, Mike. I'm sure you will. And I pray that for all of you. Each one of you in this room have contacts. What's your name? Clinton. Clinton, you have contacts that I'll never meet in heaven, in this earth, but I'll meet them in heaven. You have, you're going to meet people this week. Do you go to school and all that? You homeschool. Well, you got some folks in that school, I bet that you need the gospel. But I'm sure they're all going to wind up with the gospel. But you got friends in the neighborhood, right? You all have contacts. We're like, I consider us like little molecules of perfume. To some, we don't smell like perfume. But to those who need the Lord, we do. And that's how God does this. We have an individual witness and we have a collective witness. And that's where I want us to remind us is that there is a church. Not this building, I'm glad you have this building, I'm glad it's an anchor and I'm glad you got a place now that you can tell people to come to. But you are the molecules and collectively you make a statement. Let me tell you a little bit about Christians in prison. God gave me the grace to write a correspondence course called Walking the Walk and the Emmaus Bible School ships them out all over the, they ship them out internationally. And so now one of the basic courses is for prisoners who find themselves as Christians in prison and they want to know how does this work? I'm a Christian in prison, how does this play out? And so I wrote that correspondence course, 10 lessons, on how to live out their Christianity. And they study the scriptures, they take tests, they send the test in and they get great and they get another book. There are some realities in our citizenship in heaven that makes us visible to the world. In our political system, the evangelical Christian is actually now known as a voting bloc. And they know what our distinctives are. Isn't that true? I mean, I hate to be referred to as a voting bloc, but I praise God for this, that we are recognized as a group of people that stand for certain standards and are against other things. Aren't you thrilled? Together, collectively, the Christians of this country reflect even to the unbelieving world and to the cynical media and to those listening that you stand for certain things. They may be opposed and probably are to much of what it is we stand, but they know what is important to this voting bloc. Am I right or am I wrong? They know what you are for and what you are against. To me, that's a glory to God. The church is doing its job. Each of us individually, every time we speak up and say, you know, I'm for this, I'm not for that, they recognize that every time they come into the presence of one of you Bible-believing Christians, you all say the same thing. Isn't that exciting? So we have a collective witness. There is a collective witness in our prisons. The correctional staff are, they've seen it all. We have a ministry to correctional staff and one of my jobs with the inmates is to teach them to respect and to care for the correctional staff because it's one of the distinctives of who we are, isn't it? Jesus said submit to your authorities. And so to teach formerly rebellious individuals to submit to their authorities, authorities who are not always going about their job the right way. There's a lot that goes on in prison that you would be surprised at that is not good from the authority end of view. But they are people made in the image of God. They have one of the highest rates of suicide. I'm talking correctional officers. As an occupation, they have one of the highest rates of suicide, one of the highest rates of alcoholism, one of the highest rates of divorce in the country. In 2002 or 2003, I forget, worstjobs.com gave correctional officers the number one slot for that year. They think everybody is against them and they work with the people who can be dangerous, insulting, disrespectful, but when you Get to know the correctional staff. And you find one who will be honest with you. And I asked them this question. Prison is all about groups. People will gravitate to a group when they enter prison for safety, for protection, for socialization. One of the most prominent groups in prison is the Christians. Isn't that interesting? You have the bikers. You have the weightlifters. You have the Vietnam vets. You have the gangs. You have the races. You have all kinds of groups in prison. One of the most influential are the Christians. Imagine that. Collectively, they make a statement. Individually, they've got to live out their life as a citizen of the kingdom of heaven. I just want us more aware today that we are collectively making a statement, but it requires every one of us to individually let our light so shine before men that they will praise their father in heaven. And when you ask a correctional officer, which of all these groups in prison treat them with the most respect, who give them the least trouble, and I've asked this question on more than one occasion to veteran correctional staff, they will invariably tell me, the Christians. Isn't that encouraging? Isn't that encouraging? Do you think that that power to change came from them? These were ones who were in their face before. But collectively, as a group, doesn't mean they don't have guys who misrepresent the Lord and do it poorly. Men who maybe profess Christ and are just not there. But they will admit that overall, generally speaking, of all the groups in prison, it's the Christians who give them the least trouble and show them the most respect. What else do Christians do? They turn the other cheek. This is a no-no in prison. The name of the game in prison is protect yourself because no one else is going to protect you. Watch out for number one. Maintain your reputation. Don't let anybody get over on you. It's all about keeping walls so that people can't get in and hurt you. Turn ye the other cheek is one of the hardest commands in the scriptures for them. Because in prison, if you back down from a fight, You're marked as a weakling. And you invite more attack from other people. If they know that you're not going to fight, if you're not going to stick up for yourself, you become a target for everybody who wants to make a name for themselves. So to be turning the other cheek is like going so against the culture. Let me give you another example of a man up in Massachusetts. This man was a, he actually ran the drugs on several blocks in the city of Lowell, Massachusetts, big city. He was the one who had a certain territory from such and such a street to another street, from another street to several streets, and everybody knew this was his area, and he had proven that he was nobody to mess with. I won't go into detail what some of his reputation was, but he was feared by everyone in a several block gang infested area of Lowell. This man ran that territory. He came to prison and he came within scope of the word of God and he gave his heart to Jesus Christ. And as a very young Christian, one day they came into the gymnasium And he was, most of the men in prison didn't even know he had become a Christian yet, but we Christians did. And they had a game of basketball. Inmates love sports and they're very competitive. And one young inmate, my size, only much thinner, little guy, got mad at something this one guy did. And he got so mad, if you ever played sports and you got mad, a lot of the guys can relate to this. I don't know if the ladies get mad at sports. I used to, I won't go there. I used to referee soccer. And so it just brought things to my mind. But let me finish my story. He got so mad, he picked up the ball and he threw it right at this big guy's face. You ever been hit in the face with a basketball at close distance? Hurts. His nose immediately began to bleed. And everybody in that gymnasium stopped what they were doing. Not just the players on the court, but all the guys hanging out along the sides of the walls. You could have heard a pin drop. Because this young guy had just thrown a ball into the face of this man whose reputation had been well earned. Everybody feared this man and everybody knew what was coming next. There was going to be blood, not just coming out of this man's nose. And the young kid realized that he had acted out of just in the sport of the game and got mad and thrown the ball at him and he realized immediately what he had done. And he visibly started shaking. The man who had been hit, that former drug dealer, saw the ball go off to the side over against the wall. It hit the wall and started rolling back. He picked it up and he came back and he gave it to that kid. He said, I want you to know that Jesus Christ forgives you for what you did and I do too. 70% of those guys, I'm just giving you a figure, but more than half did not understand what just happened. But you and I do, don't we? It's part of being a citizen of the kingdom of God. And he was trying to be what his new government was asking him to be. I just want to encourage you this morning. We are changed, not because we ever had the ability to do it. It's not our nature. God came and gave us a new nature. And some of you have found Christ early in life. I thank the Lord for that. I didn't have that. Neither did my wife, Gwen. When we were married, neither of us were Christians, and our marriage within two years was on the rocks. And God came in at that point, just as we were about to go through a divorce and be happy about it. God had mercy on us, not because I got my act together, not because she was an atheist, not because she decided suddenly on her own, but because God invaded our lives. We have become citizens of another kingdom. I could give you more examples of how the church and prison reflects the changes that have come, but I don't have time. One of the things you'll see is that in the chapel, the races mix. In most of your state prisons, the blacks with the blacks, the Hispanics with the Hispanics, the Asians with the Asians, the whites with the whites. They just separate. There's only one place where you see the races mingle freely, even putting their arms around each other and singing hymns, and that's in the chapel. The kingdom of God has broken down the walls of hostility. There are many more stories I could tell you, but I'm 80% done on the first point. Jesus, number two, verse 21, will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body by the power that enables him even to subject all things to himself. History is going, brothers and sisters, exactly where God wants to take it. He will bring all things to a conclusion. And no matter what we do as a country, I pray that he continues to have mercy on us. But in some ways, what right do we have to ask for more grace? We've been thumbing our nose at him as a country for years now. We've taken him out of the public places. My men and women in prison have more freedom to talk about the gospel of Jesus Christ in jail than children in our public schools do. And they wonder what's going wrong. But be of good cheer. Jesus Christ has a plan, and he is bringing all things into subjection to that plan. I don't know what that plan is. It may be judgment. It may be mercy further. The king of Nineveh, fierce enemy. against Israel cried out in Jonah. He told his people, repent, dress up with sackcloth and ashes. Do you remember that? And what did he say? Who knows? Jonah told us that God is going to come and destroy our city. Who knows but that he might turn and relent that we perish not. And God had mercy on the enemy of Israel. So we don't know what God is going to do. But we do know this. All things are going in history where Jesus Christ wants to take it. And finally, chapter 4, verse 1. Therefore, my brothers whom I love and long for, my joy and crown, stand firm thus in the Lord, my beloved. NIV says, this is the way you stand firm in the Lord. How? By remembering that a change is coming, that the new government is coming. that the one upon whom the government has been placed upon his shoulders. Unto us a son has been born. Unto us a son has been given. And the government, our government, is upon his shoulders. And he shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. And of the increase of his government and his peace, there will be no end. Brothers and sisters, you and I are citizens of a kingdom that will never end. Never end. Whenever the scripture wants to encourage us, if you could turn just a page, Colossians 3, it says, set your hearts on things above. Chapter 3, verse 1, since then you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above. Where Christ is seated at the right hand of God, set your mind on things above. your thoughts, your mind. For you died and your life is now hidden with Christ and God. And when Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also shall appear with him in glory. Flip another couple of chapters, 1 Thessalonians, chapter 4, last few verses, starting in verse Verse 15, for this we declare to you by a word from the Lord that we who are alive and who are left until the coming of the Lord will not precede those who have fallen asleep, all those who have died in Christ. For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command and the voice of the archangel and with the sound of the trumpet of God and the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will always be with the Lord. And then verse 18. Therefore, encourage one another with these words. Brothers and sisters, when the scripture wants to encourage God's people, it doesn't tell them that your situations down here will be fixed, that you'll not get cancer, or that you won't have a death in the family. It says, keep your eye on the finish line. where Christ who has gone before us is coming again and we shall be with him forever. The book ends by saying he will dry every tear from our eyes because he will be with us. He will be our God and we will be his people. Every morning I close my devotional time with the Lord's Prayer, not in any some rote way. Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. I don't say it that way. I say to myself every day in the closing prayer before the Lord, the Lord's Prayer, because I figure that if Jesus taught us to say that, must be some really important stuff in there. And I say every line to him, trying to understand it, appealing for it, lead us not into temptation, deliver us from evil. But I think of the lines today. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done on earth just as it is in heaven. Brothers and sisters, we're on the on earth part. And we've all got a role to play in that, each of us. Me in jail, you in your neighborhoods where you work, your co-worker Gary, that's such a beautiful way to start the day. Your co-worker, you remember at a time when you were in the dark and this man did something strange. He was operating from a kingdom value that is strange to us. What manner of love is this that we should be called, brothers and sisters, the children of God? 1 John 3.1, and probably some scholars here know that that word for manner, what manner of love is this that we should be called the children of God? Do you know what that literally translates out of in the Greek? From what country? From what country does this come from? That we should be called the children of God. Paul calls us ambassadors of Christ. You ever see people entering the UN? They come in with their turbans, their brightly colored robes, their distinctions from their country. Well, I say from what country is this that we should love our enemies, that we should pray for the peace of Jerusalem, that we should vote for people who have godly principles, that we should turn the other cheek, that we should help the poor, educate the uneducated, Lift up the fallen. Comfort the weeping. What manner of love is this? From what country does that kind of activity come from? From what country does a man who was rebellious and hate authority tell a correctional officer he loves him? From what country does a man who has a reputation and fulfilled that reputation give a ball back to a man who just threw it in his face and say that he forgives him? I know chaplains in prison today. I knew one man. who wound up being a chaplain because an inmate ran away with his wife, and he lost his wife. And God so worked in that man. From what country does it come from that a man who had his wife stolen by someone who was in prison wound up being a chaplain? I knew another man whose daughter was murdered. And he wound up ministering to prisoners and forgave the man who murdered his daughter. From what country does this come from? Brothers and sisters, we operate by a code, by nature, a new nature. We do differently because we have been changed. And that change is going to exhibit itself on the last day. We shall be together forever. I'll know all your names then. And we'll see ourselves as we really are. But in the meantime, Paul in this beautiful book of Philippians says we shine like stars in the universe. We shine like lights in the world as we hold out the word of life to a wicked and twisted generation. Brothers and sisters, let your light shine this week. and be greatly encouraged. God is going to be at work putting this congregation together. But you already are all that you need right now. He will add to you as he sees fit. But only be faithful. As you go through your life this week, you're going to be separated from individuals from this little family, this shot in the arm we get every week. But remember that God is with you, the God who makes changes. the God who can get you to sing in a foreign environment to those who so desperately need his grace. May this be a church that truly preaches the gospel of grace, and may we have a heart for those around us. I keep a quote in the end of my Bible and I'll close with this. A man named George McLeod, the end of the 19th century, wrote this, I simply argue that the cross be raised again at the center of the marketplace as well as on the steeple of the church. I am recovering the claim that Jesus was not crucified in a cathedral between two candles, but on a cross between two thieves, on the town garbage heap, at a crossroads so cosmopolitan that they had to write his title in Latin and Hebrew and in Greek, at the kind of place where the cynics talk smut and thieves curse and soldiers gamble, because that's where he died, and that's what he died about, and that is where Christians ought to be, and what Christians ought to be about. May the Lord shine his light into this darkness. Someone had to tell us, brothers and sisters. May he give us the grace to tell others. With that same joy, all be reconciled to God as ambassadors of his kingdom. Thank you.