Last night I came across an article, it was actually from a Barna survey from last weekend, that found 93% of evangelicals are troubled about the future of religious freedom following the ruling of our Supreme Court, troubled about persecution to rise over the next five years. I don't know if you've followed many surveys like that, but it's not common that they actually have that high of a percentage of evangelicals agreeing on anything. But this is one of those, and that was just last weekend. I suspect if they had done it later in this week as they'd heard more, the percentage would have been higher. As we come to church this weekend, we come to John 14 verse one, where Jesus said these words, let not your hearts be troubled. Trust in God. And so as we think about the news in focus of the good news of God's word, how are we to balance these realities as Christians? We can't ignore the big elephants in the room, but we also can't ignore the reality that there is someone bigger in this room, and that is the God in whom we trust. Nine days ago, we heard the announcement that the U.S. Supreme Court redefined marriage to no longer be between one man and one woman, and rejected the will of voters in many states, and required all to recognize the will of five unelected judges instead. And the reactions range on a spectrum from celebrate to hate. Some people are furious. Some people are fearful. Some people think, so what? Others think the sky is falling. How should Christians respond? How will we? The message for us, this message, is for us whose authority is Christ. and his word, who says in John 14 verse 1, let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God. In other words, keep believing in God or trusting in God. Believe also in me, Jesus says. Those timeless words speak to our times and our faith as many are troubled. Many hearts are troubled at a variety of levels, but the trouble for Christianity in the future on several different fronts, and this is not the alarmist opinion of a fringe, fundamentalist, backwoods, Bible-thumping Baptist pastor up in the mountains, or in the foothills in our case. The Solicitor General of the United States representing our government said in the court case this ruling, quote, is going to be an issue, his words, for religious organizations who say marriage is for one man. and one woman. Four of the nine Supreme Court justices are troubled in this area, and I would suggest to you they know something about the laws of the land, more so than people you'll hear talking on TV or radio. This is what the U.S. Chief Justice said of the June 26 verdict. Quote, today's decision creates serious questions about religious liberty spelled out in the Constitution. The First Amendment freedom to exercise religion, he says, ominously, that language of freedom to exercise religion is not a word used in the opinion. And the decision, he then points out the decision by the five justices allows free speech to teach or to advocate a religious view on marriage, but it doesn't address free exercise of that religious belief in the world, in the workplace, or even in Christian organizations. And he writes, Supreme Court Justice Alito wrote separately, The decision also will have other important consequences. It will be used to vilify Americans who are unwilling to assent. Those who cling to old beliefs will be able to whisper their thoughts in the recesses of their homes. But if they repeat those views in public, they will risk being labeled as bigots and treated as such by governments. employers. Justice Thomas wrote that this verdict poses quote ruinous consequences for religious liberty and I would remind you that's the Supreme Court justices talking not just some guys on Fox. Same weekend an article in Time magazine online said it's time to remove tax-exempt statuses of all churches and he acknowledges many would not make it financially after that and this author knows and means to close most nonprofits if he could. And if they can't shut up or stop faithful pastors or churches, many of the activists want to shut down whoever they can using anti-discrimination financial penalization initially on those who won't back down. And you know if you've been following the news, Christian business owners who don't want to participate in and celebrate Weddings that violate their conscience are in some cases already forced out of business by this. But the target of radical activists can now aim higher than florists and photographers. This agenda is not satisfied to have their cake and eat it too. If you can pardon the expression. They want to shut down those who do not want to be a part of the party. And the target has become larger now. Christian schools, organizations, and institutions not in step. And there is new ammo even from the Solicitor General. himself. The political correctness pistols are already loading, if you have ears to hear. They've already shot down or shut down adoption agencies adopting only to moms and dads. People have lost jobs, we've heard about, from a Mozilla CEO to an Atlanta fire chief, and in their case, not for anti-gay discrimination on the job, but for supporting biblical marriage outside of it. So we need to understand this court decision isn't the end, it is the beginning, or it's the next chapter. And we need to ask the question that I think begs us as we come to the Word of God. Do these words of Jesus still apply in troubled times? Let not your hearts be troubled. He says in John 14 verse 1, trust in God. But how, we wonder, how do we keep trusting in God when we are troubled? Some are troubled about the next generation growing up in this world, wondering what this means in the future for my kids or grandkids, for me, what will this do for the church, not just ours, but the church in the United States, what the future holds for ministries and men and women we care about. And also men and women caught up in this movement or confused by it or confused by their own sexual identity and how we care for them. We need to recognize some have troubled hearts because they know and love people in this lifestyle. and struggle to know how to relate to them and how to respond to this ruling. Some caught up in it are troubled and conflicted in their hearts and need Christians showing them love. How we act or speak may in some cases turn some away and may in some cases by God's grace lovingly be a part of turning some back. And I recognize some of you are troubled about other things in your life right now unrelated to any of this. Just troubles in terms of finances, maybe just troubles in terms of the future, uncertain things in your future, or family situations, or physical health concerns. This just adds to the instability and uncertainty of what the future holds. Our hearts can be troubled by many things. Jesus knew of many things that would come after these words were written that would trouble our hearts. His followers are not sure where it's all going, wondering about the future and worrying about the future. Jesus said these words in John 14 to disciples who didn't know what the future held. They didn't know where he was going. They didn't know how it all was going to end. Everything had just been shaken in their world when he said these words. And he said them in the context of the instability and uncertainty they had about the future. Jesus said, let not your hearts be troubled in such times. Believe in God, he says, believe also in me. Now is not the time to run around like Chicken Little with his head cut off. It's not the time to turn tail and run off. Now is the time to trust God and to rise up in his strength. It is not the end of marriage as we know it. It may mean a change in Christianity as we know it. But not all for the bad. I believe God and I believe Christ also has good in it for the church in clarifying false Christianity and in purifying the true church and magnifying the worth of Jesus above all worldly popularity. It will break up some liberal denominations, and already has been. It will shake up conservatives. It will, I hope, wake up the middle. It's not my goal in this text, or this text doesn't really have this as a goal. This sermon's goal is not going to be to focus on same-sex marriage per se. I've taught before a message on gay marriage in the gospel. You can listen to on that later. Today's focus is not going to be the sin of others. The focus is how we not sin in response. Politics are not my concern here today. The people of God are my concern. And I'm concerned that we need to spend more time looking at God's book than we are looking at Facebook. We need to spend more time listening to Christ than we are just listening even to conservative voices. And some of them on talk shows and other places actually don't help us in what Jesus is calling us to. They can actually make our hearts more troubled. John 14 1 is a distinctly Christian response. Let not your hearts be troubled. How are we to apply these words? How are we to react to decisions that trouble our faith and seem to undermine it? How are we to act in days like ours before a watching world? I think Jesus gives us three answers in our next text that spoke to first century troubles and every other trouble since Jesus wrote these words that he anticipated. The three, our outline is gonna be right out of the text. Number one, let not your hearts be troubled. Number two, keep trusting in God. And number three, keep trusting in Christ and his gospel. And I'll repeat that as I go, but you can also just look right at the verse and it's right there. As we teach through the Bible consecutively, passage by passage and verse by verse, Often, sometimes, someone will tell me how timely a particular message was to a situation they were going through. Usually that I didn't know anything about but God did The power of just teaching God's Word the way he wrote it Expository is that in ways beyond what I could ever plan seeking to faithfully teach Each passage and apply it to our world and the whole counsel of God it often powerfully intersects with what's going on in our lives and last week we ended chapter 13 this week the next verse is Could not be more timely in God's providence to these times John 14 verse 1 let not your hearts be Troubled believe in God believe also in me one commentator translates this as meaning do not let your hearts be overcome with turmoil or don't allow yourself to be intimidated by the situation. We need to understand how strong this word is because there is a sense in the way we use the word trouble. Sin should trouble us, especially our own sin, but we shouldn't be troubled in the sense that he's talking about here or to that degree so that we stop trusting God. and that our focus comes off of God, that the word for troubled here was a strong word of being greatly agitated, greatly disturbed, stirred up like water or shaken like the disciples were when they were out on the water and there was this storm and then Jesus came walking on water during the storm and it says, terrifying trouble, same word, grip them until he said these words, take courage, it is I. Jesus spoke these words we sang earlier he plants his footsteps on the sea and he rides upon the storm. And he can give us courage for it so that we fear not in trouble the waters this word trouble is linked with a strong fear as well in fact look at verse twenty seven. He says, peace I leave with you, my peace I give to you, not as the world gives. This is not a peace that's dependent on things going well or the way we would like. That's not the sort of peace he gives. And then he says again, let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid. There's a connection between those two. The words of Jesus have power to calm troubled seas and troubled hearts. In fact, I just noticed this morning, James Boyce's commentary on John 13 to 17 has the title for this whole section. The theme is peace in the storm. That's what this whole section is about. John 14, verse one, point number one, is word for word, the first part of verse one, let not your hearts be troubled. It's kind of nice when the passage just outlines itself for you. If you want to take notes, application for point number one will be this, let not your hearts be troubled. It takes a lot of seminary classes to learn how to do stuff like that, but if you didn't get all that, just copy first part of verse one. It isn't hard to see what this is saying, but let's see the context. and then apply it in the context of John 14. The original hearers had just heard an announcement that in some ways rocked their world more than anything we've heard. The news wasn't just about the end of marriage as they knew it. It was the end of Messiah's life. And they had no category for that at all. The announcement was that he would go. He would be betrayed by one among them. And even Peter, the strongest representative, would deny him. And like the recent news that we heard, it should not have been surprising to those who had actually been listening to what had been said prior to this. But it was saddening as everything they knew was about to change. Their hearts were troubled in different ways than ours may be now or in the future. But this principle and this passage applies to any troubled heart. We speak of Judeo-Christian values that America is known for. more than 200 years and how the unraveling of our long cherished beliefs is troubling to us. But keep in mind the Judaic value of Messiah's government as a comfortable kingdom of peace was cherished belief in Israel longer and for hundreds more years this was a central part of what they all fought and were taught growing up. But now it seems this announcement in the upper room from the highest authority seems to go against all of that. And we need to keep in mind in their case it was also a biblically based belief from their law and prophets that Christ would reign in peace. Isaiah even pictured this reign in marriage terms of bride and groom of Messiah and Israel and by the way, that's one of the reasons this is such an important thing because it pictures the Lord's relationship as a husband to a Bride, but now these disciples of the early church here that that perfect picture isn't gonna be at least at this time That first he must go and this really rocked their boat this really turned upside down everything they had hoped for their nation and their families and And instead of the comfortable kingdom they thought they were going to have, Christ is telling them now in this section in chapter 15 verses 19 through 21 that persecution is actually going to increase instead of what they would have preferred. He tells them they're not to think that they're greater than Jesus. If they persecuted Him, they're going to persecute you. I think those verses are going to make more sense to us soon. John 16 verse 2 promised some of the original hearers to be forced out of Jewish churches. Look at John 16 verse 33, the end of this section. I have said these things to you that in me you may have peace. In me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. I don't care what anyone else has taught you. This is the word of Jesus here. You will have tribulation. But, he says, take heart. I have overcome the world. When we are in tribulation, and all of us will be in the future in some way, if not for our faith, even the physical realities of this world include tribulation. When we are in tribulation, Jesus shows us here the way to not be troubled in heart is to take heart in the Lord who is sovereign over and who has overcome the world. The way to have peace in a troubling time is by trusting in God, by trusting in his son, the Prince of Peace. And that takes us to a second point. Keep trusting in God. Keep trusting in God. Back in chapter 14, verse 1, the next thing he says is, believe in God. Your translation may say trust in God. Psalm 9 verse 9 says the Lord is a refuge. He's a stronghold in times of trouble. Psalm 46 1 says God is a mighty fortress and he is a very present help in trouble. To trust and obey we must trust and pray as David did for his troubled heart when he said the troubles of my heart have multiplied free me from my anguish. And Jesus practiced what he preached here. When trouble arose with him, he kept on trusting in God, his Father. In fact, if you look at chapter 12, as Jesus thinks about the suffering to come, in chapter 12, verse 27, he says these words, Now is my soul troubled, and what shall I say? Father, save me from this hour. but for this purpose I have come to this hour. And so he prays this way, Father, glorify your name. And by the way, that helps us see that there's a part of having a, being troubled within that is part of human nature and isn't necessarily sin. It's what we now do with it. And what does Jesus do with it here? He prays that God would be glorified in it. That's the pattern that he practiced before he preaches to us in John 14 one, to stop being troubled inwardly and to keep trusting in God the Father. It's by recognizing He sovereignly brought us to such a time as this, to our hour of trouble, and He's done it for a purpose. And it's like Jesus praying for His glory in it. It isn't begging God for a more comfortable life. It's begging God not to save us from the soul troubling hour. It's praying to God the Father to glorify His name in us. And God often does that when we are not comfortable. That's how we often grow and become stronger. And so as we believe in God or trust God, there's two things in particular I think to trust. Or at least two that I'll bring out here. God is sovereign over this. And God has spoken about this. God is sovereign over this. God has spoken about this. This is what we need to trust. And in the context of chapter 13, in verse 3, it says, all things are from the Father's hand. And that chapter shows us He is sovereignly decreed, even the sin of Judas. And Peter, even to the very moment that the third denial would be right before the rooster crowed. That's how sovereign he was over everything that was happening here. Jesus was about to go before the Jewish Supreme Court that night. And they would make a decision that would be an unjust decision. In fact, I don't think there's ever been a worse decision by a Supreme Court than what happened here when they decided to murder the Savior himself. And yet we recognize even in that decision that from a human standpoint was a sinful decision. God was working for good in ways they could not anticipate. God the Father was sovereign over even their evil Supreme Court verdict. God was not surprised or shaken by June 26th. And neither should we be in our hearts. God is not pacing around heaven right now. He is not wringing his hands. He is not calling for emergency Trinity Council session meetings to strategize. What now? The Supreme Court's word here on earth is not the last word. God's word says, quote, the word of the king is supreme and who may say to him, what are you doing? The king of heaven is the supreme authority and judge, and his law is higher than man's. No matter what five justices may have said, we cannot accept or adhere to any legal, political, or cultural redefinition of marriage as a church, nor can we conduct or engage in same-sex ceremonies. June 26 does not change marriage in God's Word and in God's eyes any more than the 1857 Dred Scott ruling changed the status of African Americans in God's eyes, which it didn't, or any more than a 1973 Roe versus Wade decision by that court changed the status of unborn lives in God's eyes, which it didn't either. God is the creator of life in the womb and the color of skin and the covenant of marriage. And man saying differently than the creator does not change reality. Truth does not evolve. The Supreme Court may have created, in their words, a right to same-sex marriage that was not in the Constitution, much like the right to abortion and the right to slavery in their past decisions. The court has been wrong on blacks or babies in the womb, and it is wrong again, I believe, but God's court is always right. Daniel 7 says there is a higher court. Five justices may be able to form a council majority, but Proverbs 21 30 says, no council can avail against the Lord. It's been well said. Quote, no human court has the authority to redefine marriage, and the verdict does not change the God-ordained reality of marriage. God was not defeated in this ruling, and every marriage will be judged according to biblical grounds on the last day. And nothing will prevail against Him. God has already given His judgment on what marriage is. And God says in a different context in Job 40 verse 8, You get the idea there? God doesn't appreciate it when people try to annul the judgments that He has made. In Psalm 2, it says this, rulers take counsel together against the Lord and against His anointed, saying, let us break their bonds in pieces. Let us cast away their cords from us. In other words, let's throw off every restraint of God, every shackle of tradition binding us. And in Psalm 2, heaven's court responds and speaks with these words, you judges of the earth, God tells the judges of the earth to honor his son. He says, serve the Lord with fear, with trembling. This is God's word to judges of the earth. Serve the Lord with fear, with trembling, lest he be angry and you perish in the way. When his wrath is kindled, blessed are all those who take refuge in him. That's in Christ. God's word says, take warning, the word of the Lord, take warning, O judges of the earth. Worship the Lord with reverence. That's Psalm chapter two. God warns judges of the earth to fear, to revere him, to tremble before him, to trust him. And by extension, that applies to every person as well. It just starts at the top. Judges and rulers must honor the son. They give him, they're to give him homage. They're to give him affection. Or else he will give his anger his wrath There is a warning there and you can read Psalm 2 later to see God is not shaken from his throne by events on earth God does promise a day when he will shake the earth And he does not appreciate those who try to usurp his place It was striking to me that Supreme Court Justice Scalia warned his fellow judges with these words pride we know comes before a fall He says, pride comes before a fall, and he warned in his own words to the other five, we move one step closer to being reminded of our impotence. after 6,000 plus years of human marriage between man and woman as God invented and instituted it. To those who reinvent this institution of marriage, I think the words of Nehemiah 6 from another context apply in a sense. No such things, quote, as you say have been done for you are inventing them out of your own mind. And Nehemiah says in his context, they all wanted to frighten us. But then this is how Nehemiah responds, but now God strengthen my hands. He had other enemies in a different context who were coming against him and inventing things, wanting to frighten him and the work he was doing. But he prays, God, strengthen my hands. That's how we need to pray as well, I think, like Nehemiah. There may be a new 21st century invention with its inventors who want to frighten the church, but God, if we pray to Him, can strengthen our hands. Nehemiah 4 also adds these words, Do not be afraid of them. Remember the Lord who is great and awesome. And fight for your sons, your daughters, your wives, and your homes. As they were seeking to rebuild the wall and rebuild the society there in Nehemiah's day, there were people who were making them fear, but he tells them, don't be afraid of them. Remember the Lord. He is great and awesome. And as we do, we trust. that He is great and awesome and almighty and sovereign as we sang. His never failing skill fashions all of His bright designs and works His sovereign will. The song says, you fearful saints, new courage take. Trust Him for His grace behind a frowning providence. In other words, behind what seems to us to be frowning, God hides a smiling face. God is smiling. Psalm 2 even uses the expression, He laughs when man thinks they can ultimately throw off God. God is still working. And so the song says, God, we trust in you. Oh God, we trust in you. Even when tears are great and comforts few, we hope in mercies ever. new. We trust God is sovereign in this and we also trust God has spoken about this. In Genesis 1, God made man in his own image, mankind. He created one male and one female and his first recorded words to them in chapter 1 were to procreate to multiply and to fill the earth with God's image that is passed down from every biological mom and dad to their kids since Adam and Eve. In Genesis 2, God designed marriage to meet man in his need for someone different, not identical to himself, someone different and suitable to help and to complete the man. And on both points, any other union that goes apart from that pattern fails marriage's basic definition. Design genesis 2 defines it with these words of God a man who is joined to his wife and the two become one flesh It's a covenant in the Hebrew terms for joining one man one woman one flesh intended for one lifetime and Jesus agreed to that understanding as what God joined together and he warned no man to put asunder Matthew 19 and Don't ever think Jesus didn't speak to these things. He spoke to those things, and when the questions of marriage came up, He goes back and quotes that as authoritative from Genesis. And it should grieve us if marriage is put asunder, whether by divorce, which should grieve us, or by deciding to rip apart its meaning in God's Word, to try and rewrite it and remove the designer's instructions. Genesis 1-2 is clear and so is Genesis 3 that sin corrupts man and woman and their desires to go outside the bounds of marriage that God intended for our good. Genesis 3-16 describes that corruption and then we come to the next chapter in Genesis. There's a man with two wives Genesis has adultery. Genesis has incest, homosexuality, and those are not new sins. And all sexual sins that violate God's design for marriage are serious, including things that threaten it like pornography today and emotional affairs. It says in Romans 1 that homosexual relations are part of a process of God giving sinners over to what they want as cultures suppress the truth of God for a lie. And there is an exchange, an exchange of God's ways and thinking for man's ways and man's thinking. And there's also ultimately trading the worshiping of the Creator with the worship of creation or even man's own creation. And immorality's root there is Idolatry. Acts 7.41 says, Old Testament Israel made an idol in the form of a calf, and they held a celebration in honor of what their hands had made. We may not be making calves today, but America has made an idol in the form of sexual expression. And now that they've recreated marriage in their own image, they are holding celebrations. As Romans 1.32 says, giving hearty approval. Proverbs 2 warns against those who leave the straight paths to walk in dark ways and those who rejoice in the perverseness of evil. There's a warning of those who rejoice. 1 Corinthians 13, we're learning about true love, which does not rejoice in iniquity or unrighteousness. It can love people it's concerned about, but it doesn't rejoice in their sin. Christians must not hate. But neither can we celebrate any sin that God hates. And it's true when you study it in Scripture, other sins like Proverbs 6 talks about pride and lying. Those things are also called abominations. And we don't want to make anything we struggle in a cause for celebration. like the White House did in Living Color, as our president proclaimed, quote, victory for gay and lesbian couples, a victory for their children. And he called it an answer to prayers. Isaiah 520 says, woe, that's a warning, woe to those who call evil good. and good evil. It's reversing what God has called sin, and it's rejoicing in it as good. And at the same time, we who agree with God in Genesis 1 through 2 as to how He defines what is good, we are now being called evil. Prophet Habakkuk said, the wicked surround the righteous, therefore perverse judgment proceeds. As the righteous are surrounded and outnumbered by the wicked, the prophet says that's why judgments proceed contrary to righteousness. Isaiah prophesied, the earth is also defiled under its inhabitants because they have transgressed the laws, changed the ordinance. Jesus said second coming judgment would be like when Lot left Sodom and Jude also makes the connection in the context just as Sodom and Gomorrah which likewise indulge in sexual immorality and pursued unnatural desires serve as an example. of what is to come and God's judgment to come. But there is one more application that we cannot miss in John 14, verse one, and that is we need to trust in Christ and his gospel. We need to trust in Christ and his gospel. Jesus says, believe in God, believe also in me, and we'll see this more next time, but Christ wants us to trust him by looking beyond this life, as we'll see in verse two next time. by trusting the gospel of verse 6 that Jesus is the way, He is the truth, He is the life. Not a right marriage view. No one ever gets to heaven by a right view of marriage. Jesus says the only way is I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one gets to the Father but through me. This is something we need to not miss. Marriage is not the ultimate background, a battleground. And our enemies are not flesh and blood liberals, lawyers, or lesbians. They are our mission field. Our warfare and our weapon is spiritual. It's higher than this plane. Government cannot save anyone. But the gospel can and the gospel needs to be our focus. The gospel tells us we are all sinners and we are all born that way as sinners. For some our temptations and tendencies may differ than others but the gospel proclaims a Christ who loves and saves and changes and makes us more like him. for all who want to come on his terms, which is repentant faith, and to live by his word. Jesus loves immoral sinners like in John 8, and he loves them enough to also call them to go and sin no more by his grace. He gives us a new identity in Christ, a new community that we will see in future weeks. What are we doing as a church community to prepare? We need to trust in God, but we can't trust our world. And we need to be wise. Our bylaws already took a stand on one man and one woman many years ago. We've been updating our facility use policies, clarifying our campus is not just open to outsiders or to the public for weddings or other events. So we'll be asking those who serve here to affirm our statement of faith. We're going through the Christian legal recommendations from different groups. Pastor Cliff and the deacons are helping with that, and Pastor Cliff will be up front afterwards if you have more specific questions. But we need to recognize the privileges and the bubble, if you will, that America has been living in Christians is changing we don't know exactly what the next five years or next five months hold but we can trust the Savior who does know and who holds the future in his hand and who says I am the same yesterday today and forever It may be the world considers us on the wrong side of history. In fact, I know that they do. But our more pressing concern is to have the right man on our side. The man of God's own choosing. You ask who that may be? Christ Jesus. It is He. Lord, Shabbat oath His name from age to age the same. And He must win the battle. And there's a real sense in which He already has. The early church father Augustine, when he wrote The City of God, he was addressing Christians, as I understand, who equated the Roman Empire with Christianity. They kind of confused those two, and they were shaken when things started to fall apart. with what they thought was a Christian empire. And he was writing them in that book a valuable reminder that the true citizenship of every Christian is not in the earthly country that we are in. We are waiting for the country to come. We are waiting for the city to come. And that's where John 14 verse two and following is gonna go. In your note sheet, there is some suggestions by Kevin DeYoung on how to speak about same-sex marriage. This is from his book, What Does the Bible Really Teach About Homosexuality, which I would recommend highly. He suggests these 10 commitments for Christians and churches to consider, making in their hearts and heads before God and before a watching world, that we're going to continue to preach through the Bible consecutively, expositionally, that we might teach the whole counsel of God, even unpopular parts, and to avoid riding hobby horses, even popular ones, at least in some circles. We will tell the truth about all sins, including homosexuality. And we will guard the truth of God's Word, protect God's people from error, and confront the world when it tries to press us into its mold. We will call all people to faith in Christ as the only way to the Father and the only way to have eternal life. It's right here in this chapter. We will tell all people about the good news of the gospel that Jesus died in our place and rose again so that we might be set free, saved from the wrath of God, and welcomed in the holy city that John 14 speaks of. We will treat all Christians as new creations in Christ, reminding each other that our true identity is not based on sexuality or self-expression, but on our union with Christ, which is what he's going to talk about in John 15. We will extend God's forgiveness to all who come in broken-hearted repentance, everyone from homosexual sinners to heterosexual sinners, from the proud to the greedy, from the people-pleasers to the self-righteous. We will ask forgiveness when we are rude, thoughtless, or joke inappropriately about homosexuals. We will strive to be a community that welcomes all those who hate their sin and struggle against it, even when that struggle involves failures and setbacks. We will seek to love all in our midst, regardless of their particular vices or virtues, by preaching the Bible. recognizing evidences of God's grace, pointing out behaviors that dishonor the Lord, taking church membership seriously, exercising church discipline, announcing the free offer of the gospel, striving for holiness together, and exulting in Christ above all things. One of the helpful things I read also was from the Southern Seminary blog article, The Only Decision That Matters. And it reminds us people are no more lost now than they ever have been. And Jesus is no less Lord than he ever has been or will be. We dare not cower in our churches as though God has lost anything. The only decision handed down that matters is that the gates of hell cannot prevail against the church. The Lord Jesus will have the last say. And this writer says, until then, I'm doing all I can to make my marriage reflect the love of Christ for his church. and to share the gospel of grace with everyone. No hand-wringing, no fear, no hatred, no bitterness, just love of the Lord Jesus, of the truth, and of my wife, and of the Lord's church, and of all my neighbors. Though something in our culture has definitely changed, everything in the Word of God remained the same. It may seem to some like they have hit the bottom, but there is a rock down there. The Gospel Coalition blog concludes it best. It is time we recognize we are no longer the moral majority and embrace our identity as a mission-minded minority. To love our neighbors, even those with whom we respectfully disagree. And to remember the good news that in God's law court, all who repent and believe in Christ have the verdict of justified, declared righteous, not guilty and declared righteous. They have that verdict pronounced over them and there is no court on earth that can overturn that. Praise the Lord for that. Let's pray. Our Lord, we thank you that you are the same yesterday, today, and forever. We thank you for the confidence we can have in you. We thank you that we can know that you are working in all things and that you will work in our lives and in our churches. For the glory of your name, and Lord, I pray that we would walk in a manner consistent with your love and grace and truth. We pray this in the mighty and merciful name of the one who is both coming judge and Savior and King, Jesus Christ. Amen.