Let us pray. Heavenly Father, we live in the midst of a world that is in tension between two kingdoms. May we, as we listen to your word and what your Spirit says to us today, may we discern more fully, more accurately, more wisely the difference between these two kingdoms. And may we ask ourselves of which kingdom we belong, and may we increasingly be spurred to allegiance to the only true kingdom, the kingdom of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. We ask that you would bring this about today, and we ask it in Jesus' name. Amen. Please be seated. Yes, that is the case. It is the case that, as we have seen, there are two kingdoms that are operative in this world today. We've talked about that. We've been talking about it in our time through the book of Judges. And we looked today in our time in the law once again at where God's original intent for mankind began in the kingdom of God began at creation. He gave to mankind dominion over the rest of His creation as His image bearer, as His representative. And that kingdom was to be, that dominion, that rule over all of His creation was to be exercised in His name, according to His standards, according to His character, reflecting who God is, bringing Him glory. That is the kingdom of God. And yet we know that sin compromised that kingdom. It was compromised through a desire for autonomy, a desire to be like God. In fact, that was the original temptation. You remember in the garden, you shall be like God. And in fact, that's the essence of sin, a desire to be like God, to be God's unto ourselves, a desire for autonomy. a desire to go our own way and do our own thing and be our own kings rather than to rule for God under him as his image bearers. And so another kingdom began, the kingdom of Satan as Adam and Eve followed Satan in his rebellion against God and his desire to be God, to be like God, to be ultimate. And so ever since we've had these two kingdoms And what we've been looking at throughout the book of Judges at various places is the expression of this kingdom of Satan, the humanistic kingdom, the kingdom that says it's humanism. What is humanism? Again, some have summarized it like this, that man is the measure of all things. Well, there's no greater statement of the kingdom of Satan, that rebellion of sin against the rule of God. It's God who's the measure of all things, When we presume that man is the measure of all things, that's the essence of a sinful, secular humanism. And Judges pits, shows us these two kingdoms at war with each other. And we've seen and learned, I hope, I trust, many important things about that struggle with humanism. But, and so we're asking, again, if we look at this passage, again, focusing on that, what do we learn from this passage about the dynamics of human kingship? And we began to answer that question two weeks ago. And the first thing that we saw was that humanistic kingship, and this is what we focused on two weeks ago, humanistic kingship is marked by nonproductive imperialism. Nonproductive imperialism, that is, Well, I went into that in depth and playing off of, again, the cultural mandate and the responsibility for that. And rather than repeating all that, it has been two weeks, and in reviewing, I'm tempted to go into that again, but if I do, we won't get to the other two points. So what I want to do is I want to read to you a very helpful summary of this point in James Jordan's commentary on this parable. The first point centers on the parable of the bramble and the trees in verses 8 through 15. And I want to read to you just in summary before we move on to our next point Jordan's comments because they summarize much of what I said two weeks ago. The tree's desire for a king parallels, of course, Israel's desire for the same. The trees have a king, their creator. They no more need a bureaucrat as king than do men. The three wise trees see this. Each has its work to do. Each is productive in the free market. Each gets joy from its work. None is interested in giving up the joys of work for the privilege of waving over the trees, a sarcastic reference to the stupid pleasures of lording it over others in the mere exercise of visible power. These three trees are associated with Israel throughout scripture. They signify the godly man or woman who is fulfilling his or her tasks under God. A godly society is made up of hardworking people who are fulfilling the cultural mandate of Genesis 1, 26 to 28 and 215. Because the majority of people are engaged in productive work, capital expands and a good life comes to everyone. The olive tree produces oil, which is used in anointing men to office, honoring both them and the God whom they represent. The vine produces wine, which gives pleasure to the hearts of men, and also to God when poured out as libations and food for Him. The fig produces sweet fruit. Each takes pleasure and a certain proper pride and joy in fulfilling its appointed task. Each sees itself as serving God and man, God first and then man. In this they are unlike fallen man and unlike Abimelech. The bramble does not produce good things for life. The bramble is a thorny plant and thus an emblem of the curse on the ground. The bramble is not a productive member of the economy. It grows along the ground and the demand that all the other trees take shelter in its shade is thus ridiculous. It is a demand that all society be reduced to the lowest common denominator. In order to outshine the vine, fig, and olive, the bramble must reduce them to a position lower than himself. This will result, of course, in their becoming unproductive, since they dare not outshine the bramble, and the bramble produces nothing. Does this sound familiar to any of you? Thus we see that the Bramble is not oriented toward productive work, rather he is oriented toward tyrannical rule. He represents the ungodly man who builds up a society based on taking what other people have labored to produce. His is a socialistic society based on massive confiscation of the wealth of other people, their hard-earned savings and capital. His is an imperialistic society based on the conquest of weaker people and of their production. His is a slave society based on the forced labor of other people. The bramble society is indeed the society of the curse. True to his unregenerate nature, the bramble is a man of wrath. If things don't go his way, he intends for fire to consume those who obstruct his plans. Brush fires spreading along the dried runners of the brambles were sometimes a real threat to trees. And Jotham's parable builds on this fact. The bramble is so brazen as to threaten even the mightiest of trees, the cedars of Lebanon. If the bramble had never been made king, he would not have been in a position to enforce his threats. Having made him king, however, the trees must hearken to his vicious threats, for they have delivered to him the power to enforce his vengeful will. The point of the parable is this, that good men do not desire to lord it over others. Good men are happy being productive for God and for their fellow men. They realize that the road to greatness is the way of the servant, as their Lord taught in Mark 10, 42 through 45. The only kind of men who desire political authority for its own sake are bramble men, unproductive men who seek to attain fame and fortune by taking it from others who are productive. The political inactivity of Christians and of their sometime fellow travelers, and this is the quote in your bulletin, their sometime fellow travelers, the conservatives in our modern society is partly explained by this parable. Christians are oriented towards serving God and man through work in the marketplace. Their satisfaction comes through productivity. They believe that the solution for modern social problems is faith in God and hard, productive work. Unfortunately, most modern men look to the state, to the bramble, for answers. Those who greatly desire to be kings are usually the least qualified for the post. And that goes for any area of authority, I might add. It goes for those who seek to be employers rather than employees. Those who seek political authority, yes, I think we know that well. But any type of authority, those who seek to be elders in the church simply because they want to run the show are usually least qualified for the post. A far wiser government generally comes from those who only reluctantly shoulder the heavy burden of office. The good, wise trees were reluctant. The bramble was anxious to rule. I think that's exactly it. I think that is right on. And what we see in this parable is a picture of the kingdom of Satan and its characteristics. Now last week we said that as we think about this, and I challenged you in a couple of ways and I want to remind you of that, that we, some things we can take from this individually, we should avoid envy and covetousness. Isn't it common among people, and really in our own hearts, don't you, when you see someone succeed or do well, even through their own hard work, there's a little bit of jealousy there, a little bit of envy, and there's a tendency, and because, listen, it's in my heart too, because we're sinners. The first instinct we have is to tear that down rather than to rejoice in someone's success or prosperity that they've attained through their hard work. We wish we were in their position and somehow we tend to start to construe things as if the reason they have what they have is because they've somehow cheated us out of it or because we don't have it. That is the spirit of covetousness. make no mistake it's in all of our hearts because all of our hearts have sinned and we must recognize that and resist it when we see it. This is also once again a call to be productive. Rule Godly rule is through dominion, not through force, not through taking control through force. It's through dominion. It's through godly work. It's through productivity. So what that means is whatever God has called you to do, work. Work at it. Be productive. Seek to be a productive person. Because that's what gives you fulfillment. When you do it for God, unto God, not as an end in itself, Not as if there's meaning in it, in those things. That's the message of the book of Ecclesiastes. There's not. That's a dead end. But if it's done for God, as His calling, for His glory, then it does produce the greatest fulfillment. And that's how we rule. And then, don't seek to rule. If God's called you to rule, then do it. If God's given you authority, called you to a position of authority, do it. But don't seek it simply so you can have power over others. Avoid that type of an attitude. Well, then let's move on. We need to see, secondly, that humanistic kingship is thwarted by self-destructive egocentrism. And you see this, I want you to look at this from verses 16 to 21. Self-destructive egocentrism. Now, let's take those one at a time. What do we mean? Egocentrism is just self-centeredness. And what we see in looking at the kingdom of Satan is that one of its most essential characteristics is this self-centeredness. It's why sin and the kingdom of Satan leads to alienation rather than true community and true love. It's because everyone, every individual in the kingdom of Satan, and what sin does is it makes us look only to ourselves and our own interests. It turns us inward, but community is only possible when we're turned outward and when we're thinking about each other. If I'm only thinking about myself, then I'm miserable. This is why sin doesn't, it would seem that if I'm trying to fulfill my desires, the more I do that, it's going to lead to more and more happiness. But exactly the opposite is the case. Egocentrism leads to misery because true fulfillment, true happiness comes through true relationship. It comes through relationship with others. This is the great irony of life. And if we could get this one thing straight, we would deal with a lot of our misery. But that's, it's the difference, one of the differences between the kingdom of Satan and the kingdom of God. So as we've seen, what happens here and what you see here as this is played out in what Jotham says in the curse is going to happen. He points to, again, we've seen this self-orientation first, that these evil men, Abimelech and the leaders of Shechem, they've conspired together to take control. We don't want to be ruled under a godly rule. We don't want to be ruled by Jeroboam and his descendants or anything like that. We don't want a decentralized rule. We don't want to be ruled by many men. So we'll choose one man. And that will be Abimelech, and that's their plan. And we'll get rid of all the enemies. And what we see, as we've seen before, this self-centeredness expresses itself in evil men wanting to be God. And so what does that mean? Well, my wrath must be propitiated. And so the person who has incurred my wrath, they have to be sacrificed. And so that's what happens. They sacrifice those who have made them angry or who are against them in some way they perceive. And then that problem, if I'm God the problem has to be expiated and so other people are always the problem. And so they have to be expiated. But notice what, and that's the self-orientation, but notice what that does. And notice the curse that is upon them. Jotham says, if you've done well, if you've done well, then take delight in each other. You'll enjoy each other, but that's not, he knows that's not what's gonna happen because that's not what happens with evil. If you've done evil, And it's obvious, it should be obvious to all that they have done evil. Then here's what should happen. Let fire come out from Abimelech and consume you and let fire come out from the men of Shechem and consume Abimelech. What's he doing? He's presenting this, here's what's really going to happen. If this is evil, here's what happens. Evil destroys itself. Evil men destroy one another. Why? Because of their self-orientation. Self-destructive egocentrism. Because each one is seeing each other as the problem. Each one wants to rule. Each one wants to be God. So they can never cooperate. They will always eventually come to a place where they mutually destroy one another. Some of you have heard probably the poem by Eugene Field of the gingham dog and the calico cat who began to fight and claw. And those who observed went to bed, and they woke up the next morning, and like the gingham dog and the calico cat, these will eventually destroy each other. They fought all night. When the people woke up, they couldn't find the gingham dog or the calico cat. They were gone. Why? Because they had devoured one another. That's what evil does. Evil devours itself. Evil men destroy one another. And there's a picture of this in Zechariah. And in Zechariah chapter 1, verses 18 through 21, Zechariah pictures the horns And horns are pictures of kings and strength, whether they have to do with the four horns of the altar that symbolize God's kingdom or horns that are symbols of ungodly rulers that represent Satan's kingdom. But listen to what Zechariah says in his vision. I lifted my eyes and saw and behold four horns. And I said to the angel who talked to me, what are these? And he said to me, these are the horns that have scattered Judah, Israel, and Jerusalem. Then the Lord showed me four craftsmen. And I said, what are these coming to do? He said, these are the horns that scattered Judah so that no one raised his head. And these have come to terrify them, to cast down the horns of the nations who lifted up their horns against the land of Judah. to scatter it. What's the word for us? Well, one is a word of hope. Isn't it interesting that it's the craftsmen who will prevail over the horns? The horn is an emblem, a symbol of strength. And here it's the symbol of those ungodly nations who had come in and overrun Judah and Israel. And yet here the prophecy is these craftsmen will overcome them. Isn't that interesting? Isn't that exactly what we've seen? You see, because we might think that tyrannical rule, those who pursue power are always going to triumph in the world. But God here says, no, that's not how it works. Tyrannical rule and those who pursue power for its own sake are not going to triumph. What's going to happen is the godly workers, those who are productive, the craftsmen, those who simply persevere in doing what God has called them to do, and godly work, and producing, and the societies that produce. are based on hard work and productive, honest hard work, will triumph. They will triumph in history. And they will triumph because they are contrasted with a self-destructive tendency among the ungodly. The kingdom of God, listen to me folks, we hear all the time, that the kingdom of Satan is growing stronger and stronger and stronger and there's nothing we can do about it and in history that will happen. We hear that the Bible teaches this even. I don't think the Bible teaches that at all but that's what we hear. But really I think what the Bible teaches is that Satan's kingdom cannot prevail because it is internally and inherently self-destructive. that God's people and God's kingdom will inevitably prevail because of the nature of God's kingdom when compared to the nature of Satan's kingdom. And that's our hope. We don't have to wait for a future cataclysm for that to begin to happen. Yes, there is a consummation and Christ is coming and he will finally put down Satan's kingdom. That's true. And the Bible does teach that. But in the meantime, we should expect increasing victory. Maybe not even in our immediate experience, but over time, yes. They believe it's inevitable. I believe that's what the scriptures teach. And what that means then is work hard. But let's work hard now. Be inspired to work hard now because your labor in the Lord, as Paul says to the Corinthians, your labor in the Lord is not in vain. It is, in fact, the means that God uses to produce victory, to bring victory to His kingdom. We don't sit around waiting for God to do something. God works through us as we take these things to heart. That's His kingdom. That's what His kingdom's about. We identify what is it that God has called us to do, and we do it in godly work, in godly productive activity. And that itself is a big part of the building of the kingdom of God. Yes, and as we do it, we bear witness to Christ. And listen. Yes, it's not just that we do all the work. Remember. This is why, this is why God takes the trouble to tell us that the one who has saved us and I regret that in our worship program it was left out of the scripture reading. Really the crucial verse wasn't printed there. But the crucial verse is verse 9 in Hebrews. We do not see everything submitted, subject to God. We don't see everything, or to man. God originally subjected everything to man. And the psalmist asked, who is man that you're mindful of him? The son of man that you care for him. And then it answers. You've set everything under His feet. You've crowned Him with glory and honor and put everything under His feet. When did God do that? He did it at the beginning in Genesis. We read it. and Genesis 1. But then the writer of the Hebrews says, but at present we do not see everything subject to him. Why? Because that rule and that dominion was compromised by sin so that thorns and thistles grew and the earth won't submit readily to our rule. Why? And that's the effects of sin. He says, we don't see everything at present subject to him. But then verse 9 that wasn't printed, but that is really the essence of the gospel. The writer of the Hebrews says, but we see Jesus. We see Jesus, who was made for a little while, a little lower than the angels. In other words, He became a man, now crowned with glory and honor. There's a man, there's a man sitting at the right hand of God on the throne of the universe. Do you realize that? Do you realize the significance of that? It means our rule, our ability, To exercise that dominion that God established in the beginning has been restored. It's been definitively restored. Jesus is seated at the right hand of God the Father on the throne. That's the point of the writer of Hebrews. We don't see our dominion restored yet because the effects of Christ's redemption have not been fully applied yet. That victory has definitively been won already. We don't see that yet, but we see Jesus now crowned with glory and honor because he tasted death for everyone. And that's why I believe that the Bible gives us that detail. It gives us that detail that the one who is our Savior was a carpenter. He was one who labored. He was a craftsman. You see, because He restores our dominion. He restores the meaning of life to us, for us. Humanistic kingship is always going to be mutually destructive because it's self-centered. It's like a football team that can't win when it's full of very, very talented players who all want to be stars and play the game for themselves. You can't win. Because it's a team game. It's interesting that in the history of the world, true prosperity really came. And if you've studied, if you've had a good world history class, you know this is true. True prosperity really began, the explosion of Western prosperity began when we learned about the division of labor. when people realize that I don't have to just live on a feudal manor where I produce everything for myself and I have to do everything for myself. Wait a minute, I can do a part of it and somebody over here can do a part of it and somebody else over here can do a part and we cooperate and then there's mass production and what happens? Everything's multiplied. Prosperity is ratcheted up to the hundredth power. Because of division of labor, because we're cooperating, because we're each doing a part of the work, and I can mass produce that, and now what happens? Everybody prospers. Because we're not all just everyone working for myself and doing everything myself for me. See, that's the way God designed it to be. Each one productive in his area of calling. That's dominion. That's the kingdom. Satan's kingdom is where everything's oriented toward me and all I'm doing is working for me, me, me all the time. And I hope you can see the application of this for the church. Listen folks, the church is to be the little microcosm of God's kingdom. It's to be the expression of God's kingdom as we are the witness to the world. So the life that we have here at Christ the King Presbyterian Church is supposed to mirror the kingdom of God, not the kingdom of Satan. But what does that mean? It means that each one of us has to begin to think as the scripture tells us, about each other's interests, not simply our own. It means that when we are together, that I go into a fellowship, whether it's a fellowship meal, or a church picnic, or even a worship service, before or after a worship service, I go into that thinking, who is there that I can encourage? Who is there who has a need? How can I meet someone else's need? And as we do that, with that mentality, We come to discover that God's given us different kinds of gifts. He's given someone a certain kind of gift. He's given them an orientation to meet a certain kind of need. And you learn that. But how do you learn that? You don't learn it because he drops a sign down that says, you have this spiritual gift and you have that spiritual gift. No. You do it through actually taking an interest in each other and thinking, where's a need I can meet? And you know what? The needs that you're going to realize, the needs you're going to gravitate toward, are in your areas of giftedness. That's how you find your spiritual. And we don't do spiritual gifts questionnaires at Christ the King Presbyterian Church. Sometimes I wonder, well, how did Paul the Apostle get by without spiritual gifts questionnaires? Well, I don't know. But I think he just encouraged people to serve. And isn't it interesting? Here's where those two things come together. Rule in God's kingdom is servant rule. How do we exercise dominion? We exercise dominion as we want to be the servant of everyone. As I look at those and I don't say, how can I exercise my authority? How can I be the top dog? No, we ask, how can I serve? Where's a need I can meet? How can I serve other people? You know what that means? It means you are ruling. Because God means you to rule when you do that. That's what servants do. That's what rulers do. That's what those in authority are supposed to do. That's what husbands are supposed to do for their wives. That's what elders are supposed to do for people in the church. That's what government officials, who used to be called ministers of this and ministers of that, echoing a Christian view of political authority. Minister just means servant. They were called that because they understood that public service was public service. That's the kingdom of God. The opposite is the kingdom of Satan. Well, very quickly, the last point is this. Humanistic kingship is punished by God- is punished by God-inductive anarchism. You know, I apologize, I probably obscured the point by trying to make them parallel grammatically, okay? But what do I mean by God-inducted? And God-inducted, I mean just simply God-induced, God-produced, God-led. Anarchism, what is anarchism? It's where nobody's ruling. It's just chaos. Humanistic kingship always ends in that. And notice, again, that's what you see at the end of this. You see those who brought Abimelech and enabled him, brought him into control here at the end, they begin to work against him just like Jotham prophesied. They start to compromise him and his rule and the order of his rule by camping out and robbing people. So what's that going to do? That's going to create people's insecurity. They're going to think, well Abimelech's not ruling. Abimelech's not keeping things under control. Who is this king that we've put over us? They're working against him by producing anarchy. There is no rule. There is no real control. Satan's kingdom always tends toward this. I want you to notice just a couple of things really quickly. You see them there in your outline. God avenges evil. You see, Jotham's curse is based on this premise. If you've done well, then you're going to delight in each other. You're going to do well. Everything's going to turn out just fine. But if you haven't, may fire come out from each other and may you devour each other. And the understood implication is you have done evil. So that's what's going to happen. Why? Because God will make it happen. He's standing on Mount Gerizim. He is standing on the Mount of Covenant Blessing or Cursing and we've noted it's the Mount of Covenant Blessing because judgment, the judgment of God on evil is a blessing for God's people. But notice it's Covenant Blessing and so in doing this Jotham is standing there pronouncing this and what is he doing? He's calling God down to do this. Now some don't like that. Some would say, well this is vengeful. God's not a vengeful God. You know what? God punishes evil. And He punishes evil ultimately on the last day. But often in history He comes and He punishes evil. And it's a glorious thing when God does this. And listen, This means that we need to take to heart that God sees. Listen, you may look at evil today in the world. You may look and you see evil. You see, it looks like evil's triumphing. It looks like evil is powerful. It looks like those who are perpetrating the abortion industry, it looks like they have all the power in the world, all the money in the world, and this will never change. And we can name many other examples. in our society now. And you may look at that and you may tempted to become discouraged and even despondent and to say, will this ever change? Is there any hope for this? Listen, the message of this passage is the message of Jotham's curse is God sees and God cares and God is going to right every wrong. You can be certain of that. The question you need to ask yourself is, of which kingdom am I a part? Have I aligned myself with God's kingdom? Have I forsaken these characteristics of Satan's kingdom? And then, as part of that, we need to see this, that God uses evil. You know, we look at this and we see there that God sent an evil spirit. Now what's that all about? God sent an evil spirit? Well, yeah. It shouldn't surprise us that God uses evil spirits. God, listen, if you think that the nature of the world is that you have Satan's kingdom over here and you have God's kingdom and they're constantly, eternally at war with each other and it's like two equal camps, then your view of the world is not Christian. It's Manichaean. ancient heresy that these are two equal opposite opposing forces. No. Listen. Satan is a creature. Satan is under God's control. Satan cannot do anything that God does not allow him to do. And you think of Job. Satan said, look, if you do this, if you allow me to do this, then here's what Job will do. And so God says, well, let's put it to the test. Okay, I'll allow you to do this. But he sets up a fencer. He says, you can do this, but don't leave this much. The evil spirits want to do evil. They want to do as much evil as they can, but they can't do anything that God doesn't allow them to do. And God uses evil for His purposes. And He uses this evil spirit to punish these evil people. Because what the evil spirit wants to do is he wants to destroy. So, okay, let me go at it. And God says, okay, I'm going to let you go at it. But He does it under God's control. That shouldn't surprise any of us. And what that should do is it should cause us to see that evil is no real threat to God. God is in control. God is sovereign. God will bring all things to a good end because God uses all things for His glory. Evil is not out of control. And it should also tell us this, that the conspiracy theories that we hear that scare There are conspiracies, yes, there have been conspiracies in the world, but the problem that we face is not some grand conspiracy that's been going on with the Illuminati since the beginning of time. I don't think there isn't any such thing as the Illuminati, but these things that you hear, listen, yeah, there are conspiracies. I don't say, well, none of that's real, if you believe any of it. Well, some of it's real, yes, but that's not the point. Evil people can't, since the Tower of Babel, they've been unable to cooperate to thwart God's purposes. They can't because of the self-destructive nature of evil that we've seen. And ultimately, The problem isn't conspiracies, the problem is sin. The reason it looks like a one grand conspiracy is because sinful people gravitate toward the same types of things and keep trying the same kinds of things all through history. The problem is sin, not some grand conspiracy. And the answer for sin we see as we come to the table. And I'll ratchet up how loudly I'm speaking now, and I'll ask those who are serving to come. Let's come back to what the answer to the problem of sin is. The answer to the problem of sin is here at this table. It is the one that we see portrayed at this table. It is the carpenter who died, who died once for all sinners. And the answer and the heart of the Kingdom of God is faith in what God says. And His word is this, trust in my Son and His work on your behalf, and you're redeemed. And your sin is not only atoned for, but as you continue to trust God, that sin is reversed. and transformed by his grace into productive activity that brings him glory and us satisfaction and fulfillment that nothing else can. That's the kingdom of God. And it says we're united to that one who is on the throne at the right hand of God that all of that is restored. And so as you are invited to this table, what is it? There's so much. We talk about one aspect of it, usually, when we come to the table every week. But there's so much. This table is about so much. It's about a covenant. It's a covenant meal. But it's our renewal of that covenant. And what's the original covenant? It's the covenant of creation. And as that covenant is renewed, It's the restoration of our dominion. It's the restoration of our ability to be productive. It's the atonement for our sins that God provides through the covenant of grace. And how does that happen? It happens as we take hold of Jesus Christ by faith, and we're united to Him. And what this table represents, and when you eat and you drink the body of Christ, the blood of Christ, figuratively through these symbols, but really, because God makes it really happen by His Spirit. That's what's so mysterious and grand about this table. God causes us to experience that spiritual reality in an intense way as we come to this table, and you take hold of Christ once again by faith. So, listen, realize that's what this is about. It's about you becoming and experiencing the fact that by faith, You're with Christ seated in the heavenly realms, as Paul says in Ephesians. You've achieved victory and God is working out that victory in your life and in the world through us as his people, in his kingdom. So come and let this be your experience of that reality, of the reality of it as you take and eat and as you take and drink. And let it be something that gives you hope and encouragement and new power as you commit yourself once again to the kingdom of God and its activity. Listen, folks, this isn't just a myth. This isn't just a fairy tale. This isn't just something that we talk about that we wish were true. It's real. How do I know it's real? It's as real as this bread. It's as real as this wine. That's how real it is. Come, come, and experience that reality once again. Let's pray.