Let's Begin, Again

About the time that Sauldam was getting started, we sent, at that point, a young, short lady over to China. And we sent her as a missionary with no real funding whatsoever, actually. She just kind of went and people back then blessed her. But since then, we’ve named a Christmas offering in honor of her because of the courage she demonstrated, the sacrifice she made, and the great, incredible cost she took on to herself. Because she recognized something that that video said, the world’s greatest problem is lostness. And she knew that she had the solution. The solution is the gospel, the message of Jesus Christ coming, living in our place, dying in our place, and rising again, making a way for us to be reconciled with God.

So, as Southern Baptists, every year we take up an offering called the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering. We have a goal for ourselves with the Operation Christmas Child shoeboxes. We surpassed that goal. We have a goal for ourselves with the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering of $1,500. I’ve got zero doubt whatsoever that if we want to surpass that goal, we will. So, it’s just a matter of do we want to surpass it? Do we want to meet that goal? Do we want to continue to send missionaries to engage lostness around the world? Some of us will never go overseas. We will never have the opportunity to share the gospel with folks in Indonesia or in China or in Africa. But we have the opportunity to send somebody else that can. And that’s the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering. So, I want to encourage and challenge everybody to consider on top of your normal giving to write in a check for the Lottie Moon or put some cash in our special Lottie Moon offerings in the back. And let’s see what sort of generosity Southern Baptist has in order to engage the world’s greatest problem.

The last week as well, we prayed for another incredible problem. That was the Benton family is experiencing, was and still is experiencing a lot of difficulty. So, CL, it’s just really hard. I’m sure many of y’all are more aware than I’m aware of. And CL is just not doing well. So, the family started meeting this morning at 10 to have some conversation about some decisions to be making. So, we’re going to spend a moment to pray for them again, asking that God would guide them, give them a lot of peace, and continue to entrust CL into the hands of a loving, loving father that knows all the details. So, how about this? Let’s take another minute. Just pray silently to yourself, and I’ll bring us back together.

God, I continue to pray for my new friend, Clyde. God, I can’t understand the confusion and the pain that he’s going through right now. But you are a father that had to make hard decisions for your son. You know every ounce of every emotion he’s dealing with. You know every whisper of every hope he has. You know every letter of every prayer and thought and wish he’s uttering right now. We know that you’re the God of miracles, and for sure, you can work another one here. We also know that you’re the God of comfort, and you will continue to comfort regardless. Lord, I pray for wisdom for the family. God, I pray for a lot of peace. Father, I also want to pray for the billions of people around the world that have zero access to the hope that we’re claiming right now. Pray for the people that have never heard the gospel, and they will die tonight. Go to hell because they don’t know you. Praise your name. You are the Savior who makes a way for us to know you and have hope in this world. God, I pray that you would help our church to engage that lostness. God, around the world through the Lottie Moon Offering and here in Charleston as we rub shoulders with people that have no hope, God, please send us into our little communities and our neighborhoods and our work with an eye for people that don’t know you. God, we love you. I’m asking that you get a hold of this sermon and you would do something with it. Amen.

Well, as we open up this morning, I want to ask you a question. What does home mean to you? What does home mean? If you had to describe home, how would you describe that? Some of us may start off by describing the home that we grew up in. For sure, some of us had good homes that we came up in, a lot of good memories, A lot of fun time with parents and with siblings. Some of us had incredibly hard homes that we grew up in with really poor memories and a lot of pain. Some of us just went home for Thanksgiving, and others of us had people come back home for Thanksgiving. And now another holiday is around the corner with Christmas, and we had to answer this question once again: What’s home? What’s it mean for us?

As I, you know, I’m a young dad. I’m a husband. And I’m constantly asking myself the question, what sort of home am I creating for my kids? What sort of household will my family remember 10, 15, 20 years from now? Is the home I’m creating a place where they want to come back to or not?

The deal, though, is that no matter how good your home is, no matter how bad your home is, all homes are imperfect and they don’t last. That’s just the truth of the matter. But C.S. Lewis said something really interesting that I think we need to direct our attention to. He said, “If I find in myself desires which nothing in this world can satisfy, the only logical explanation is that I was made for another world.”

I bring that up because some of us, again, just went home. Others of us had people come home. And we all had some desire for what time at home was going to be like that wasn’t satisfied. We all had desires for what growing up can be like. We all had desires for what raising can be like. And it’s not satisfied. And here’s the fact: that’s because nothing in this world can satisfy this deep longing that we have for true home.

The good thing is the Bible speaks to that. God’s Word speaks about the worlds we’re made for, the true home we all long for, and the new home that God is making for us.

This Sunday, this morning, we’re wrapping up our four-week series on God’s big story. What is the story of the Bible? How do we help place ourselves in this? How do we wrap our hands and our minds around this book? And I want to take us this morning to Revelation chapter 21. If you have your Bible physically or on a device, you can go ahead and open up or turn there now. That’s where we’re going to be this morning.

This morning, as we’re studying Revelation 21, it’s interesting. This book is written by a man who was driven away from his home. Written by a guy named John. He was exiled to the island of Patmos by the government in the late, I think it’s like 80 AD, under Emperor Domitian. He was exiled from his home and had to live out the rest of his life on an island by himself where he receives this revelation from Jesus Christ about what the end would be like. And he writes this revelation to a series of churches and Christians that also had been driven from their homes. These were homesick Christians. And at the crescendo of this book of Revelation, John writes about a coming home and a promise of victory.

We read Revelation, I think, incorrectly when we’re trying to do all the arithmetic of when Jesus comes back and what exactly is going to happen. Revelation chapter 21 and 22 is the cornerstone of this final book of your Bible. And that’s where we’re going to be this morning.

So how about this? Words are going to be on your screen. I’m going to read it over us. And I just want to invite you just to follow along with me as I’m reading Revelation 21 verses 1 through 8.

“Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth. For the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. I also saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared like a bride adorned for her husband. Then I heard a loud voice from the throne: ‘Look, God’s dwelling is with humanity, and He will live with them. They will be His peoples, and God Himself will be with them and will be their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes. Death will be no more. Grief, crying, pain will be no more because the previous things have passed away.’ Then the one seated on the throne said, ‘Look, I am making everything new.’ He also said, ‘Write, because these words are faithful and true.’ Then He said to me, ’It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. I will freely give to the thirsty from the spring of the water of life. The one who conquers will inherit these things, and I will be His God, and he will be My son. But the cowards, faithless, detestable, murderers, sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars, their share will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death. This is God’s word for us this morning. Revelation 21, verses 1 through 8. We’re going to capture and complete this incredible story of God’s word.

Now for us, there’s one big main point as you’re going home talking about the sermon, as I know you like to do, and as you just like to spend the afternoon idling away just talking about how great of a preacher I am. I don’t get the laughter. One main point: in recreation, we will dwell with God forever. We will have a free, forever home with God.

Now you start off in these verses, and verse 3 just jumps off the page at us, and we see, look, God’s dwelling is with humanity. That word dwelling there, it has to say God is like this master builder, and He is making a place for you. That word dwelling has incredible significance because think back through the story with me. In creation, Genesis 1 and 2, God made an ideal home for His people, an ideal dwelling where He could live with them. But the fall comes, and Adam and Eve are exiled from home because God didn’t want them to live forever in a state of sin. So they have a home, then they are driven from their home.

It then fast forward through the history of God’s people in the Old Testament, and eventually you had this tent of meeting where God would come down periodically and talk with Moses. The Bible says like a friend face to face. I can’t really capture that, what that must have been like for Moses, aside from incredible and scary and blissful all at the same time. So God periodically meets with Moses in the tent of meeting. He, for a moment, dwells there. Then the tabernacle is made. The tabernacle is like this, it’s another tent, it’s another periodic home where God would come and dwell for a moment. And then you have the temple made. And again, God would come and fill the temple with His glory, and then in a moment, it would all be gone.

So God’s presence with man is in these specific moments of this tent and the tabernacle, there are these attempts to recreate personal encounters between God and man to bring the divine presence into human places, this dwelling. And then Jesus Christ comes on the scene, and He comes to walk beside us. He leaves, and then He sends the Spirit to live inside of us. And now we read at the end of your Bible, one day God will reside with us. That is the story of this dwelling. God is going to make His tabernacle with us, with an unending experience of His presence and glory forever. And who’s He going to do that with? Us, all peoples. There is a heavenly homecoming for a multi-ethnic family.

Revelation 7, 9 through 12, read this way. I believe we’ll have it on our screen again with us. Revelation 7, 9 through 12. After this, I looked, and there was a vast multitude from every nation, tribe, people, and language, which no one could number, standing before the throne and before the Lamb. They were clothed in white robes with palm branches in their hands, and they cried out with a loud voice, “Salvation belongs to our God who is seated on the throne and to the Lamb.” All the angels stood around the throne, and along with the elders and the four living creatures, they fell face down before the throne and worshiped God, saying, “Amen. Blessing and honor and wisdom and thanksgiving and glory and power and strength be to our God forever and ever.”

A day is coming where God will dwell with us, and the us is going to include people from all nations, tribes, tongues, and languages, which is why we give to the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering. Because there will come a day where the church that God inhabits and dwells within could look like a stained glass mosaic of people from all corners of this globe. That is the family God’s going to live in us dwelling with. Those are the folks we’re going to wrap arms around with at this incredible feast with the Lamb, where we are worshiping and enjoying Jesus forever. And we’re going to put our right hand around A brother from Africa and our left hand around a sister from Saudi Arabia. And we’re going to say, “Don’t you love Jesus? He’s incredible, isn’t He? He’s the reason we’re all here.” That’s the home that we are going to. What would it look like if our church community here started to resemble that a little bit more? Because the nations are no longer just out there for us to get on a plane and go to. Y’all know this better than us. Charleston is a destination for people to move to. The nations are coming into our backyard. They’re moving into Summer’s Corner. They are moving into the Homecoming neighborhood. They are moving into West Ashley, Hanahan, downtown. The nations are here. And our church is primed to look like that mosaic of all peoples, tribes, tongues, and languages.

Now I want to lean into that together. If it’s going to be true there, let’s let it also be true here. So there’s four things about this home I want to give specific attention to. So if you’re taking notes, I think it’ll be on the screen. Because we will dwell with God forever, we will have a living home. A place where we are fully alive. If you look at verse 4 again with me, it says that God will wipe away every tear from their eyes. Death will be no more. Grief, crying, and pain, no more. Because the previous things have passed away.

I find it incredibly comforting that in God’s presence, death dies and suffering stops. But I think this may be hard for some of us to believe. If you’re like me, you’ve asked yourself these questions: God loves me, but I’m in need. Can He help me? God loves me, but I’m feeling alone. Can He hear me? God loves me, but I’m sick and my body is broken. Can He heal me? God loves me, but I’m afraid. Can He hold me? Friend, I’ve got a promise for you that in this forever home that we will enjoy with God, He will wipe away every tear from your eyes. And death will be no more. And you will be fully alive for a full eternity. That is the hope that we have. That is the place we are going to. Amen.

Anybody in this room ever tried to wipe away a tear with one of those grabby things, you know? You ever take a Kleenex on the end of one of those four-foot claws and try to wipe somebody’s tear? No. How do you wipe away a tear? Rick, how do you wipe away a tear? That’s right. Your wife’s crying. You’re not going to toss her a box of Kleenexes, are you? Maybe we’ll go to this side. Cam. No, when Becca’s crying, I’m going to walk up and I’m going to put my arm around her and I’m going to put my sleeve and I’m going to wipe her tear. I’m going to come up close. When God wipes away your tears, is He going to toss you a box of Kleenex? Or is He going to come up close, put His arm around you and say, “It’s okay. You don’t have to cry anymore. I’m here.” That’s the home we’re going to.

You know, we pray for the Benton family. There will come a day when the Benton family experiences no more death or suffering. Grief will be done. Crying will be no more. We can’t promise them that in this life. We can promise them that in the life to come where we will dwell with God forever.

Now, here’s the thing. Not only will we have a living home with God, but the second aspect, we have a secure home with Him. Verses 5 and 6 says, God, He’s not just speaking abstractly about something He wishes for us, but He declares from the throne these things. Last I checked, a king does not have to wish for something. And a king does not abstractly hypothesize about things. But when a king says, “It is done,” it is done. That’s what a king does. So our heavenly, eternal King, when He says from the throne that I am making everything new, these words are faithful and true, it is done. Oh, you take that to the bank every day. That is the hope that we have because it is secure for us.

And this home that God is making, it’s fascinating to me. He’s not just remodeling the old, but it seems like He’s remaking something completely new. You know, back in the 1950s, our church experienced a catastrophe. You know, this is not the original building, nor was that one. But that one was Built to replace our old white church. And back in 1952, for some reason, the church burnt down. 59, thank you. I said that to test you. So back in the 50s, our church burnt down. And we didn’t just, so we didn’t just remodel a sanctuary with some new carpet and pews and a new pulpit. We had to build something completely new from a catastrophe and from fire.

The Bible seems to say that that’s what God’s going to do with this world. In Isaiah chapter 65, verse 17, God, through the prophet Isaiah, makes this promise to His people: “For I will create a new heaven and a new earth. The past events will not be remembered or come to mind.” And the apostle Peter, thinking about that in 2 Peter chapter 3, verses 10 through 13, then writes these words about what God is doing: “The day of the Lord will come like a thief. And on that day, the heavens will pass away with a loud noise. The elements will burn and be dissolved. And the earth and the works on it will be disclosed. Since all these things are to be dissolved in this way, it is clear what sort of people you should be in holy conduct and godliness. As you wait for the day of God and hasten its coming. Because of that day, the heavens will be dissolved with fire and the elements will melt with heat. But based on His promise, we wait for a new heavens and a new earth where righteousness dwells.”

So God is going to totally make a new home for us. A home that could never be marred by sin. A home where there would never be a wrong choice. A home where death and suffering are done with. And these words are faithful and true. God Himself is faithful to His word and only speaks true words. And because He’s the Alpha and the Omega, whatever He says goes. For us, Alpha and the Omega may not mean a whole lot. But for someone reading and hearing Greek, that would mean something. Alpha is the first letter of the Greek alphabet, Omega being the last letter. God is, it’s like He’s saying, “I’m the A to Z. There’s nothing before me. There’s nothing after me. In me, everything is. And based on the totality of who I am, I speak.”

In Hebrews 12:2, Jesus calls Himself the author, the perfecter, the Alpha and the Omega. Jesus is the King shouting from the throne, “I was slain. But hey, joke’s on you because I am the ruling King.” And He’s the one that promises these things to us. And as sure as the hope of the gospel is to save you, the hope of the Bible is to secure you for all eternity. That is the home we’re going to.

Which means God has the final word on everything that happens in your life now. There is not an aspect of a moment that God is unaware of and isn’t able to direct and change for your good. And in fact, the Bible says that God makes all things work out for good for those that love Him. There is nothing that you will ever experience that God doesn’t know deeply about. So that means when you’re crying and when you’re suffering and when you’re wondering why is this happening, God can come up next to you, put His arm around you and say, “Hey, this will end one day. Not just your experience of this, but this whole thing is going to be done one day. When the time is right, don’t you worry.”

So God, in recreation, gives us a living home. He gives us a secure home. And because we will dwell with God forever, you will also have a full home. Here’s what I mean. In verse 6, the second half, God, still promising, says, “I will freely give to the thirsty from the spring of the water of life.” We will be totally satisfied and filled with God freely for all eternity. Can you imagine that? God gives everlasting life freely. No cost, no earning, no payment. There’s nothing you can do to buy it off of Him. There’s nothing you can do to put God in your debt to make Him give it to you. Which means there’s also nothing you can do to make God stop giving you life. God gives freely. And He doesn’t just give from the spring of the water of sort of living, kind of mundane, get you through the day. No, He gives you from the spring of the water of life. In Isaiah 55, God, again, through the prophet, promises that There is a day coming where anyone who is thirsty and hungry can come have food and drink from God Himself without cost, without payment. And in John chapter 4, Jesus is talking with this woman at the well, this woman who’s in and out and in and out of all these adulterous relationships. And Jesus Himself says, “I have life for you. I have living water to put inside of you. Do you want it?” And then a few chapters later in John 7, Jesus isn’t just talking to a single woman at a well, but He’s looking at a crowd in Jerusalem. And He says, “Come to me. I have water, living water. Come to me. Are you thirsty? I’ll satisfy. Are you hungry? Come to me.” God wants to fill you with living water. And that will happen in this forever home we have with God.

And I think it’s interesting that God calls it a spring. You know, springs, they fill themselves. They keep themselves clean. You drink the water and more water goes in its place. That’s what God has for us. Not just an ocean of water that theoretically could be dried up. Not just a river that’s got to be fed from some other mountain source or some lake. But a spring, something that wells up from below. That’s what God has for us. And He wants to put life inside of you.

So the question then would be, what does it mean? What does it mean to drink from the spring of the water of life? I think what that means is ultimately to recognize your need for God. Because if you’re not thirsty, you’re not going to go get a bottle of water, right? If you’re not thirsty, you’re not going to go to the tap and fill up your cup. If you’re not thirsty, you’re not going to go pour yourself some sweet tea. If you’re thirsty, you see that I need water. I’m thirsty. I’m going to go take care of this right now. I’m getting thirsty right now. The first thing I do when I sit down is I pray and I drink water because talking gets me thirsty. I have need for water. And like God, we must have need for Him. When we recognize our need for Him, when we turn to Him, that’s drinking. When we see that I need His rescue and I turn to Him, that’s drinking. When I see I am lost, I don’t know Him, that’s turning. When I see that I’m not just in a fix, I need Him to take care of everything. I need His provision. That is drinking.

There is a world of people that they need water, but they do not know that they need water. There is a world of people that need His provision that God is taking care of and wants to satisfy completely. And they’re waiting for us to send them messengers of good news. There is a world of people that you work with, that your kids play with, that we are neighbors with, that need this water, but they don’t know that they need the water. I think there may even be people in the room right now that have yet to truly recognize they need God. You may be doing the church thing. You may have been doing the church thing for a long time. You may know a lot about God. But do you see that you need Him? Not just that He can improve your life or that the people at church can be nice, but that without God you have nothing. Man, if that’s you, I really want to talk. Because God has something for you that is so much. And He wants to give that to you. He begins giving that to you now and for all eternity in this forever home that we will have with God. He wants to give it to you some more.

So those who drink His water and see their need will dwell with God. There’s a fourth component of this forever home. It’s the fact that we will live in an adoptive. Verses 7 and 8 say that the one who conquers will inherit these things. “I will be his God and he will be my son.” But the cowards, the faithless, detestable, murderers, sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, liars, their share will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, the second death. These things are promised to those who conquer. Now you have to ask the question, what does it mean to conquer? And I think this points back to the whole context of the book of Revelation where John is writing to these homesick, persecuted Christians. And He’s saying, hold on. Live by faith, not by sight. I think that to conquer means putting faith in action and trusting God at His word. Or as my friend Matt Altman likes to say, faith is a demonstration of a declaration. Which means you don’t have to be perfect to conquer. You don’t have to be perfect to inherit these things. You don’t have to be perfect to have eternal life with God. But it’s about a direction of your life. It’s about what’s the core purpose of your life. It’s about who do you rely on. It’s about do you trust God or not. Those that trust God will live in this home.

And here’s the deal. Because of Jesus, we can become God’s sons. Not because of what we’ve done for Him. Romans 8:15 says, “You did not receive a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear. Instead, you received a spirit of adoption by whom we call Abba, Father.” Ephesians 3:6 says, “The Gentiles, you and me, are co-heirs, members of the same body and partners in the promise in Jesus Christ through the gospel.” Titus 3:6-7 says, “God poured out His Spirit on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior.”

Here’s the deal. You and I don’t deserve these things. In creation, God made us to be His children, born in His image. In the fall, we emancipated ourselves from the Father through sin. And we rejected our true sonship, choosing to be sons and daughters of Satan, the father of lies instead. In redemption, God the Father sent God the Son to restore that broken relationship by taking our sin on Himself and dying on the cross. And in recreation, God is bringing us back home to Himself, adopting us fully into His family.

You have an adoptive home waiting for you in heaven if you place your trust in Jesus Christ. Here’s the deal. You can’t be born into salvation. You can’t have just parents who love Jesus and therefore you’re good. That’s not how it works. You have to have a personal reconciling with God about this thing. And again, if you’re not sure that you’ve ever done that, I really want to talk. I’m passionate about this because it is the world’s greatest need. And it’s the greatest promise of the Bible that we can become sons of God.

And there’s a reason that John wrote sons of God and not just sons and daughters of God. So now let’s put on our cultural glasses for a second and recognize that inheritances only went through sons then. There’s something to be said about that. But for us, as we’re reading the Bible, we see that all of the wealth and all the blessing of a lineage would go through sons, particularly the firstborn. So when God says that we will become God’s son, men and women included, that means every benefit and blessing of being a firstborn son falls on everybody in this room. Which means when God looks at Jesus Christ, the Son, He sees you behind Jesus no matter who you are. And He says, by the way, everything I’m treating Jesus with, I’m also going to give to them, which is extremely good news for us.

Here’s the deal. God is a loving Father who pursues us, His wayward children, and He wants to draw us to Himself. That’s who God is. And He wants to make His home with you. He wants to bring you into this forever home. He wants to dwell with you. But there are people who don’t live in the home. There are some who reject the offer of being God’s sons. And that’s what verse 8 is all about. The people that choose to have some other basis of their identity. The people that do not stand the test of time and don’t conquer. The cowards. The people that don’t place their faith in Jesus. The faithless. The ones that do detestable things. The ones that choose a lifestyle of murder and hatred. The ones that choose sexual pleasure over Jesus. The ones that even go to sorcery and magic instead of the power of the living God. The ones that worship idols and non-gods instead of the one true God, Jesus Christ. All ones who do not trust in the truth and the faithfulness of God, but instead the liars. Those are the ones that will not dwell with God for all eternity.

And those are the ones we’re raising money for with Lottie Moon. Because it should bother us deeply that there are people around the world that reject the sonship being offered to them. I really like my family. And I really want you to like them too. And I’m going to talk about them all the time. If I tell you about my daughter and you said, “Big stuff, Jeremy,” probably going to have a couple problems. I love my kids and therefore I want to tell you about them. We love our church. Therefore we are inviting people to our church. Right? We love Jesus and therefore we want as many people as possible to know about Him. Right? So that’s why we’re raising money. Because we should be bothered deeply that the love of our heart is not loved by others.

There are people that will reject this offer. Yes, but there are so many more people that never even get to hear the offer that we have for them. People that can never be adopted because they don’t even know the name Jesus Christ. People that can never be filled with the springs of living water because they are purely drinking from the cultures and the religions around them. People that don’t have a secure home for them in the eternal life to come because their present life is so fraught with sin and insecurity. People who do not have an option of living forever because death and suffering and grief and crying and pain are their day-to-day existence and reality without Jesus. That should bother us deeply. Does it?

So what’s our response to a message like this? What’s our response to this incredible promise of this dwelling God has for us? There’s only two things. This week, I want you to trust and I want you to tell. I want you to trust that God has hope and a life for you to come. I want you to trust that no matter how difficult your experience is, no matter the pain you’re walking through, no matter what tomorrow holds, you have an eternal tomorrow that will be unscathed and untouched and untainted by sin and pain. And I want you to tell somebody.

Part of the reason that we’ve gone through this series, the meta-narrative of the Bible, is because I wanted to give you an evangelism tool. And now you have it. You’ve heard it four times. You’ve heard that in the very beginning, God made everything good. But sin came in and disrupted everything. And that’s the state you and I live in. But God so loved the world that He sent His only begotten Son so that anybody who would trust in Him would have life and not perish. And we await a day where we will dwell with God forever in righteousness. That took me 30 seconds. You’ve heard it four times. Is there somebody you can share it with this week? Possibly, do you need to accept that for the first time this morning? In a minute, we’ll pray. We’ll sing an offertory. And I’ll be down front during an invitation. I’d love to begin a conversation.

Let’s pray. Jesus, You’re far better than I’ve described You as this morning. You’re far more magnificent than my words can ever capture. Your goodness is far beyond any conception I have of it. The badness of my sin is far worse than I could ever confess. The pain You experience at the lostness of billions of people around the world is deeper than anybody will ever do. But praise be to Your name because You came to redeem us and make a forever home for us with You. Jesus, please send us to the world this week to share that hope with somebody. Please, God, use somebody at this church to draw someone into the kingdom this week, please. And Lord, if there is somebody even right now that does not know You in this room, I beg, I beg that You would give them the courage to humble themselves all on Your name and be saved. Lord, work in us the way only You can and use us to glorify Your name. Amen.