Just a few, like a preface, I guess, before I get into the introduction of the sermon. Some things I thought about this morning. Back in June 21st of 2009, I was asked to preach here by Jeff Smith. And that was about the time we were starting to transition. He was transitioning out. And the text I selected was, 1 Peter chapter 2. Now the emphasis was a little bit different, but I didn't get to preach that message because I got really, really sick that weekend and so somebody else had to preach for me. But I just thought that was interesting. Here I am some close to 15 years later and finally get to go to 1 Peter chapter 2. Another thing I'd like to say before we start, you know, What has sparked, why did I want to go to 2 Peter? And specifically this message, the people of God as from chapter 2 verse 9 and 10. And that's because there's so much garbage going on out there today in the church and it's being It's being accelerated. I'm not saying it's probably been here all along, but social media just really just fans the flames and so much bad stuff. And so I pray, I don't want to be, do a polemic against any of that. I just want to preach the word of God today and hopefully that would be a cure for what's going on out there. So if you'll turn with me to 1 Peter chapter 2. And once again, I am this week using the New American Standard. So if mine's a little bit different from yours, that's fine. 1 Peter, Chapter 2, Verses 9 and 10. But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God's own possession, so that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who has called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. For you once were not a people, but now you are the people of God. You had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy. Let us pray. Gracious Father, I come to you once again seeking the help of your Holy Spirit. Father, I pray that you would take this crooked stick and draw a straight line. And I pray that what I say will be true to your word. And as much as I stray or wander, I pray that those would be just like the dry leaves in the winter would fall away, be trampled on. But that which I speak, that is an accord with the word. I pray, Lord, that it would just resonate in the hearts and minds of every believer here today. And I ask this in Jesus' name, amen. Amen. So you know my penchant for history, so I have to start out with a history lesson, right? Veni, vidi, vici. one of the most famous quotes in history. It came from Julius Caesar. In 49 BC, Julius Caesar took his army across Rubicon, started a civil war. He consolidated his power in Rome first, and then had to go out to the client states, to the provinces, and consolidate his power there. Many client states took the advantage of the discord in Rome to try to break away. One of these provinces, the king of one of these provinces, King Pharnaces, and I'm sure I'm pronouncing that wrong, the second, Apontus, he invaded Anatolia to try to break away. get out from under Rome's thumb. They weren't a province, but they were a client state. They were paying heavy tribute to Rome for many years. Well, Julius Caesar was tied up in Alexandria at the time, in Egypt, trying to gather his power there, consolidate. And so he sent a small army. to take care of the problem, and it was defeated. So when he got through with his business in Egypt, he took his army and arrived at Zala in Pontus and defeated Pharnaces in a quick but very decisive battle. In his report to the Roman Senate, or to a friend, counts very He wrote these famous words, vini, vidi, vici. I came, I saw, I conquered. And that conquered territory became the Roman province of Pontus and Bithynia, which in our scripture is very relevant today. If you look back at chapter one, verse one, You see the introduction, Peter says, Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, to those who reside as aliens scattered abroad throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, who are chosen. So the very area that I'm talking about that that quote comes from, the battle, became a Roman providence, providentially, and God's providence is the area where these churches that Peter was writing to. As when we look throughout history, we can see God's providence over and over and over again in things that forward the cause of his church. So who was Peter writing to? It says that he was writing to those who reside as aliens scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, who are chosen. He's writing to them as exiles, as dysphoria. Now, why does he call them that? Why does he refer to them in that way? Well, there's several different explanations for that. Of course, the first one is because of the many exiles that the Jewish people had faced through Assyrian Empire, Babylonian Empire. They were scattered, many thousands of Jews were still scattered all around the Mediterranean and beyond. And we know that when the gospel went forth after the resurrection, after the ascension, and the apostles went forward, we know that it grabbed hold first in the Jewish synagogues, that that was where the gospel first bore fruit. The synagogues were central to the Jewish life in Asia Minor, and they were places for prayer and study of the Torah and community gatherings. But like I said, the gospel went forth often first to the synagogue. In fact, we see that it was Paul's explicit strategy was to go to the synagogues first whenever he went to a new area. We see this in Acts 13.5 and Salamis they proclaim the word of God in the synagogues of the Jews. Acts 13, 14, it says in Pisidian Antioch, on the Sabbath day, they went down to the synagogue and sat down. Acts 14, we see in Iconium, they entered together into the Jewish synagogue and spoke in such a way that a great number of both Jew and Greeks believed. Acts 17, 1 and 2 in Thessalonica, Paul went in as was his custom, and on three Sabbath days he reasoned with them from the scriptures. Acts 17.10 in Berea, they went in to the Jewish synagogue. Acts 17.17 in Athens, he reasoned in the synagogue with the Jews and the devout persons. And in Acts 18.4 in Corinth, he reasoned in the synagogue every Sabbath day and tried to persuade the Jews and Greeks. So we see that was explicitly Paul's modus operandi to go into a new area, find the synagogue, preach there to the Jews who were steeped in the scriptures, who should have recognized the truth of what he was saying about our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, how he came, died, was buried, and raised again. So there's no reason, though, even though there's nothing explicit, there's no reason to believe that other apostles and others who went forth did not follow the same strategy. So I'm sure they did. And then you have the fact that whenever everything was taking place in Jerusalem, all the festivals and everything that Jesus attended, and then of course the final Passover where he came and gave his life for us. And then everything surrounding the crucifixion and the burial and then the resurrection. Many of the Jews from the areas had been there on pilgrimage and were firsthand witnesses of that. And so when they went back, they were very receptive to the message. If they weren't believers when they went back to their synagogues, they were very receptive to the message. And of course, we know that many weren't receptive to the message. And then those who were became believers, they would separate out into their own little community. Well, that's one explanation. Another one is we see in Claudius Caesar's Edict of 49, there was an expulsion order that was targeting Jews, or targeting the Jews, spelling them from Rome. Now, according to historical accounts, mainly from the Roman historian, Suetonius, The edict was issued because of disturbances in the Jewish community, which he described with the phrase, Judeas Impulsor Cresto Asidu Tumultuanis Roma Expulet. Now, my Latin's terrible, so. But what it translates to is, since the Jews constantly made disturbances at the instigation of Crestus, Christ, he, Claudius, expelled them from Rome. So you see that there was this whole thing where in the Jewish communities, Christ was being preached. Some were believing, coming to faith. Some were not. They were resisting the faith. Tensions broke out. Claudius just said, enough of this. Everybody out. And so they left, had to leave Rome. And as they did that, many Jewish Christians made their way back to their homelands, to the places where their family traditionally were. Some of them maybe grew up there, went to Rome, went back. And we know this. We can see Priscilla and Aquila were examples of this. In Acts 18, we see that after these things, he left Athens. Paul left Athens and went to Corinth, and he found a Jew named Aquila, a native of Pontus, having recently come from Italy with his wife, Priscilla, because Claudius had commanded all Jews to leave Rome. So we see that among those believers who were kicked out of Rome and had to go back were Priscilla and Aquila. And it's an interesting note that we know that they went back to Rome at one point because Paul asks in a letter somebody to greet them, includes them in the greetings. But we see in 2 Timothy, it says, greet Prisca and Aquila, and that was written to Timothy when he was in Ephesus, which is just a little bit south of the area we're talking about. It's still part of that Asia Minor Turkey, part of Turkey, about 350 miles from Pontus. So we know that later Quilla went there, was part of that Ephesus church. So that was probably who he's talking to. These people who were kicked out of Rome, who had And unlike today, when we move from one area to another, we might sell our belongings and put money into a bank, go to another area. We have the money still in the bank accessible to us. But they didn't have that option then. They had to carry what they could. And this was not giving them a lot of time to pack up and leave. It's like, go. Go now. And so they lost everything except what they could basically carry on their back. If they had some pack animals, they could carry a little bit more. And so these people, these Christians in this area, have lost a great deal because of their faith. And that will become evident in a little bit. So what is Peter's theme? Why is Peter writing to these churches? Well, he's basically, writing to give him hope and encouragement in this time of exile. How do we live in exile as Christians? First Peter, go to chapter one. Let's look at verses three and five. It says, blessed be the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who, according to his great mercy, has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. So first of all, he's talking about living in hope. uh, as Christians. And not only that, it says, look at verse four, it says to obtain an inheritance, which is imperishable and undefiled. It will not fade away reserved in heaven for you who are protected by the power of God through faith for salvation, ready to be revealed in the last time. So they had been given up probably great wealth when they left, were forced out of Rome. But he's saying, no, you have a greater wealth now. You have a great inheritance in Jesus Christ, our Lord, that cannot perish, cannot be taken away from you, what you have now. So what you have given up is nothing compared to what you have in Jesus Christ. Edmund Clowney writes in his commentary on 1 Peter, Peter writes a letter of hope. The hope he proclaims is not what we call a fond hope. We cherish fond hopes because they are so fragile. We hope against hope because we don't really expect what we hope for. But Peter writes of a sure hope, a hope that holds the future in the present because it's anchored in the past. Peter hopes for God's salvation, God's deliverance from sin and death. His hope is sure. because God has already accomplished his salvation in the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. The resurrection, still quoting from Clowney, the resurrection of Jesus was a life-changing reality for Peter. When Jesus died on the cross, it was the end of all Peter's hopes. He knew only bitter sorrow for his own denials. The dawn could not bring hope. The crowing of the cock he heard In the crowing on the cock, he heard the echo of his curses. But Jesus did not stay dead. On that Easter morning, Peter learned from the women of the empty tomb and the message of the angels. He went running to the tomb and saw its evidence. He left in wonder, but Jesus remembered Peter. and appeared to him even before he came to eat with the disciples in the upper room. Jesus was reborn in Peter's heart and with the sight of his living Lord. Now Peter writes to praise for that living hope. The resurrection did much more than restore his master to him. The resurrection crowned the crown the victory of Christ, the victory for Peter, and for those to whom he writes. The redirection shows that God has made the crucified Lord and Christ, excuse me, has made the crucified both Lord and Christ. At the hand of the Father, Jesus rules until the day that he will come and restore and renew all things. With the resurrection of Jesus and his entrance into glory, a new age has begun. Peter now waits for the day when Jesus will be revealed from heaven. Peter's living hope is Jesus. So Peter is writing to these people who have lost so much and reminding them of the hope that they have in Jesus Christ. It's a real hope. Another reason he writes to them is or remind them how to live in exile is to live in holiness. Verses 13 through 16 says, therefore, prepare your minds for action. Keep sober in spirit. Fix your hope completely on the grace that is brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. As obedient children, do not be conformed to the former lusts which were yours. in your ignorance, but like the Holy One who called you, be holy yourselves also in all your behavior, because it is written, you shall be holy, for I am holy. So you see, as we live in exile, these are things that we must remember. We have great hope in Jesus Christ, and we are to live of those who have hope in Jesus Christ, by living a holy and a separate life. But now we come to our focal verses here, chapter two, verses nine and 10. But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God's own possession, so that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. For you once were not a people, but now you are the people of God. You had not received mercy, but now have received mercy. These verses here, there's three main places in the Old Testament that Peter's drawing from. If you read Peter, unless you see that he is just so steeped in the Old Testament. Everything he says is pretty much based in the Old Testament. And it's fulfillment in Jesus Christ. But there's three main verses that we'll be coming to off and on here. One is in Isaiah 43, 20, 21. And in others, Exodus 19, five and six, and then Hosea chapters one and two. These are great verses to remember. But the first thing that we see Peter is telling us about the people of God, who we are in Christ, is we are a chosen race. And Isaiah 43, 20 and 21 says, the beast of the field will glorify me. The jackals and ostriches, because I have given water in the wilderness and rivers in the desert to give drink to my chosen people. The people who I formed for myself will declare my praise. Of course, Isaiah, when he's writing these words, he's referring to the seed of Abraham, the descendants of Abraham. But Peter boldly applies this to the Christian church, to us. He applies it to the readers here in Asia Minor, regardless of race, or better put, he applies it to them because of their commonalities in Christ, regardless of physical background, constitute them the true race that God redeems. Now, there is a lot, and this is what bothers me a lot about social media from so-called reformed churches, there's a lot of division along racial lines. And I don't get it. I don't get it. Because when you read verses like this, how can you do that? Now, granted, we all have different cultural backgrounds and heritages. And there's good to be celebrated in all of them. I'm wearing a certain tie today. Why did I wear this tie? This tie is the Buchanan plaid, my Scottish heritage. There is good to be celebrated in my Scottish heritage. There's bad, too, because the Scots, like all people, are sinners who need to be saved by the grace of God. But there is no room in God's church for division along these racial lines. It's funny, the last time when I could not preach, 15 years ago, the sermon. We weren't live streaming at the time here at our church, so I had to go to a sister church. At that time, the church in Mebane was actually our advising church. And so I went there and heard a great sermon by Gary Hendricks 15 years later, and it still resonates with me. So if you want to turn with me, I'm going to look at Colossians chapter 3 for a second. Yeah, Colossians chapter 3. Verse 10 and 11. And have put on the new self who is being renewed in the true knowledge according to the image of the one who created him, a renewal in which there is no distinction between Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave, and freemen, but Christ is all in all. Now, as I was studying this this week, I'm not following Brother Hendrick's outline. But as I study it this week, I'm looking at this, and I see these pairs, Jew and Greek, or Greek and Jew, circumcised, uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave, and freeman. And as I'm looking at that, I see the first one, Greek and Jew. There's no difference, no distinction between Greek and Jew. Now, who's he talking about here? I believe he's talking about the natural birth here. I think between those who were born Jews and those who were born Gentiles, there's no distinction in the church. Our birth does not play into our salvation. It doesn't play into who we are, our natural birth. Excuse me. There is a birth that plays into who we are as God's people, but it's not our natural birth. Now, there are blessings of natural birth. We're born into a Christian family, and we're The gospel is shared with us from an early age. That is a blessing, and we should be thankful for that. But that is not what saves us. It's the gospel of Jesus Christ that saves us. And there are many who, in this church, who were born in a Christian family, who heard the gospel from a young age and became Christians. And there's many here who were born in non-Christian families who heard the gospel at some point and became Christians. So it's not our birth. natural birth. The second one is circumcised and uncircumcised. I believe here he's talking about converts to Judaism and those who remained Gentiles. As we saw, there are those who In the synagogue, the devout people, some of those would become Jews. They would become circumcised, join, become proselytes in the Jewish faith. And then there are those who were still just devout Gentiles, those who would come, hear the word preached, worship the Lord with the Jews, but never became Jews. There is no distinction between those in the church as they came to know the Lord Jesus Christ. There was no distinction. Those who were circumcised and had become Jews first and then became Christians, they did not have a higher standing in the church than the ones who were Gentiles when they were saved. And then we have barbarian and Scythian. Now, at first glance, these two are very much the same. Why is he throwing those in there? And he doesn't put the and in there. He doesn't really separate them like a pair. But the barbarian in the original Greek, meaning someone who did not speak Greek, thus seemed uncivilized and foreign by the Greeks. Here it is used more generally to describe those outside of the predominant Greek culture, anybody who was not part of the Hellenistic culture or the Roman culture They often suggested someone who's less sophisticated or different cultural background. But then we come to the Scythians. They were the worst of the barbarians. They were the lowest of the low of them. They were nomadic tribesmen, and they were fearsome warriors. They were so ruthless that the atrocities that they committed to their enemies was too horrific to describe. These were some really, really bad people. And then last, we have the slave and the freemen. We have the two different economic scales. You've got the free, who were probably better off, more wealthy. You've got the slave, who were, they were poor. They were sold into slavery. And they're not free to do as they will. So imagine the early church. The early church, in many ways, must have been quite a mess when you think about it. As the gospel was going out and people are coming to faith, people are coming, being saved. Saved out of terrible backgrounds, terrible lifestyles, paganism and whatnot. Imagine the early church and in that church, worshiping together, you have former temple prostitutes along with former clients. They had to work through it. But then imagine here, somebody who had family had been victims of the Scythians at one point. Imagine you go to the fellowship meal like we have here after the service. Imagine you sit down with your plate and here comes this big, smelly, tattooed, warrior-looking person. Except for this person is no longer a vicious warrior. He is now your brother in Christ. Imagine that dynamic. You see, the church can be a messy place. It can be. We all have our different backgrounds. We all have our different cultures. We all have our different ways of seeing things. And that's why we need grace. And I think that's why Jesus says, they'll know you're our disciples by the way you love one another. Because it takes a lot of love to keep a body so disparate together. But we have one thing in common. We have that commonality in Jesus Christ. We have that common confession, that common love for Jesus Christ. So, we are a chosen race. a royal priesthood and a holy nation. That's the second thing he tells us. This is drawn directly from Exodus 19, five and six. It says, now then, if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant, then you shall be my own possession among all the peoples for all the earth is mine. And you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. These are the words that you shall speak to the sons of Israel. We are a royal priesthood and a holy nation. Now, what does that mean? Does that mean that we're all like the Levitical priesthood, that we're all going to the temple and making sacrifices? Actually, I'll say yes and no. Hear me out. The priesthood, when we think about the priesthood, they were drawn from the people of Israel. the Levites specifically, and they were consecrated and set apart for a particular purpose, for the worship of God. They presented the sacrifices on behalf of the people to God. As people bring their sacrifice, the priest would prepare and present it. We, as the people of God, we are to be separate and holy. As he's already said, be holy for I am holy. We are to be those people who are consecrated apart from the rest of the world. Our mindset should be different from the rest of the world. We should think different terms. We should think and and godly terms. And we are to offer sacrifices. Constantly. The sacrifices we offer are not the blood of bulls and goats and animals. We offer one the sacrifice of praise in Hebrews 1315. It says then Through him, then, let us continually offer up the sacrifice of praise, that is, the fruit of lips that give thanks to his name. We are to be a thankful people in all things. We should be expressing our gratitude to God for whatever comes our way. that he has provided for us. We should never crumble, and we do. I do. I'm bad. We should never disparage anything or lot in life. We should always be thankful. Last week was a case in point. We had a very, very, very small group here last week. We had a very little small thing. But we were so thankful for it, and guess what? It was enough. It was more than enough for all of us. So we ought to be offering continually that sacrifice of praise, giving thanks to the Lord in all things. And another thing we should be sacrificing is ourself, right? Romans 12, 1 and 2, one of the very first scriptures I learned from memory. I'm not going to read it from memory, because I'll mess it up. Romans 12, one and two. Therefore, I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. So that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect. So along with that thanksgiving for everything in our lives that the Lord has blessed us with, we are to be sacrificing ourselves in the service of the Lord. And how do we serve the Lord? We do it by serving others, serving our brethren. That's why the great commandment, love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. The second commandment is like it. Love your neighbor as yourself. Why is that tied together? Because our love for the Lord is displayed in our love for our neighbor. Our service to the Lord is manifested through our service to our neighbor, specifically our brothers and sisters in Christ. So we are a royal priesthood, in that sense, and a holy nation. Next, he says that we are God's own possession. God's own possession. What does that mean? Well, looking at it historically through human kings, human kings often had two treasuries. They had the national treasury and they had their personal And the national treasury was all the funds and the things that belonged to the state, the funds to administer the state, to pay the armies, to take care of the obligations of the state. He had his own private treasured possessions. He might have mementos that were given to him by loved family members. Who knows? He could have anything, plus his own wealth. We are God's own possession. We belong to him specifically. We are protected by him. We are put in his treasury. Nothing, nothing, nothing can steal us out of that treasury. We, as the people of God, belong. We are loved by him and he will not let anything happen to us. So we are God's own possession. Now we come to that those who were not a people are now people. Let me read that again. For you once were not a people, but now you are the people of God. You did not receive mercy, but now have received mercy. Now for years as I was a young Christian, young means younger than today, I would look at that and I would say, oh, that means that the Gentiles, those who were outside the faith completely, he has brought those in and made those his people. And there is an element of that. If you go to Romans, that seems to be what Paul is kind of alluding to when he quotes from Hosea. But we're gonna look at Hosea. These are quotes from Hosea. So let's look at their, if you wanna turn to Hosea, I'll read it. You know, it's funny. I'm not using my tablet because, like what happened with our streaming today, I'm wary. When it comes to me, technology seems not to work. So I didn't want to use my tablet. Now my fingers aren't working. And I've got bookmarks in here, so I wouldn't lose it. And I've lost it. Hosea. Let's look first at chapter one, Hosea. Now, if you don't know the story of Hosea, Hosea was a prophet of God in a time when Israel and Judah had just terribly apostatized. They had utterly turned their backs on the Lord and become just like the nations, the pagan nations around them. So when the Lord first spoke to Hosea, the Lord said to Hosea, go take for yourself a wife of harlotry, and have children of harlotry, for the land commits flagrant harlotry, forsaking the Lord. And so he did that. He went, took Gomer for his wife, and they conceived a son, and the Lord told him, or excuse me, a daughter, and Lord told her, name her Lo-Ruhamah. Lo Rahama, what does that mean? It means no mercy. I will not have mercy on this people any longer. These people who have just utterly forsaken me become like the nations around them. And when she had weaned Lo Rahama, she conceived and gave birth to a son. And the Lord said, name him Lo Ami. For you are not my people, and I am not your God. Can you imagine anything more devastating to hear from the Lord? You are not my people, and I am not your God. These ones who were chosen and came out of Israel, whom he drew out of the slavery of Israel, that had come through the Red Sea, who had been there when the giving of the Ten Commandments and the thunderings in the mountains And here's their descendants, and they just totally, totally turn from the Lord. They are totally like the pagans around them. So he's saying, look, you're acting like the pagans. You're living like the pagans. You are no longer my people, and I will no longer have mercy on you. And that's crushing just to think about that. But then we come over to chapter two and just like every, every prophet, every time you read a prophet in the Old Testament, you always have those sections of judgment. Those just, everything is so dark. Everything is so, um, dismal and bleak. And then you have that glimpse of God's mercy and grace and his promise of the future. So we see down in chapter two, verse 23, He says, I will sow for her, I will sow her for myself in the land that I will have compassion on her who had not obtained compassion or mercy. I'll have mercy on her who had not attained mercy. And I will say to those who are not my people, you are my people. and they will say, you are my God. You see, we see a promise, that reversal of that curse, where he says, I will say to this people, you are my people, and you will say to me, I am your God. And so that's what Peter's alluding to. He has this great, great promise. We, being those who were outside the faith, those who were far, far, far from God, those who were living like the rest of the world, who did not care for the things of God, did not care for Christ. And then all of a sudden he says, no, you are my people and I am your God. And he draws us in with his loving heart. He gives us new hearts, hearts that see his glory, hearts that bow to his will, hearts that gladly proclaim that Jesus Christ is Lord and King. These are the ones to whom God has shown mercy. That's what he's talking about. Those who are not my people, who are now my people, are those who have received the mercy of God. And that's who the people of God are. The ones who come from every kindred, tongue, tribe, and nation, regardless of race or background, but who have come to know the mercy of God. We are a royal priesthood, a holy nation. Those who have been consecrated, set apart by God for his own services, for his own purposes. We have become the people of God. Not because of us, not because of what we've done, but because of what Jesus Christ has done. And we have been recipients of that mercy. We are God's own possession. We are his treasured people. Not because we are good people, not because there's anything good in us that deserves that. In fact, the world might look at us and say, why on earth would a God choose those people to be his treasured people? That God has set his love upon us and has chosen us in Christ to be his people. And we have received mercy. And then those who did not know mercy have received mercy. So that's who the people of God are. We are the people of God. We and believers all around this globe who are worshiping the Lord today. We are the people of God. And the church will go forward and the church will grow. and the church will not be defeated by the darkness that's threatening to cover the world. And these barriers that might divide people, the Greek, the Jew, whatnot, those will be broken down by the gospel of Jesus Christ, and we will go forward. So, application. Well, there was a lot of application, I think, in it, just the fact that Peter is teaching us how to live in exile. We are a people to have hope, no matter how dark it gets. We are to hope in the Lord Jesus Christ and what he has done for us, knowing that no matter what this world takes from us materially, we have an inheritance in Jesus Christ that cannot perish, that will not be taken from us. We are to live holy, separate lives. We are not to be like the rest of the world in our thinking, in our habits. Even we love to harp on social media, and there's a reason. There is a danger there. We should be different in the way we absorb stuff like that. But we need to be serving Christ. And we need to be loving one another as Christ loves us. That's a high command when we think about it. When he says, you are to love each other the way I have loved you, that is such a high bar that we will never reach without the power of the Holy Spirit working in us and through us to get there. But that's what the people of God are like. And of course, if you are here today and you don't know Christ, if you've been, especially I see a lot of children here today, and I know a lot of you have been in church since you were a baby, that you haven't missed a day of church since you were first born, and you've heard the gospel preached over and over and over and over again, but you have not yet come to that saving knowledge of Christ, where you realize that, yes, I'm a filthy, rotten sinner, I do not deserve any of these blessings that you're talking about up there today. Les, no. Come to Christ. Come. Come to Christ. He says that any who come to me, I will know why he's cast out. If you go to him with your sin, you will be accepted, and you will receive the mercy that I just spoke about. You will be those who are not his people, but you will become his people. And that goes for a child and adult alike in him. So I pray that the board has been using me.