we have a small crowd I'm sure the ladies who got back from the retreat are tired that's why a lot of them are not here you notice the youth aren't here they're having a combined round house over at rock wall and Brin that's why they're not here but the important thing is you are here right and it doesn't matter how many people are here uh we can be gathered together in the lord's name we can learn and grow and I hope that we all do that tonight I know there are some who weren't here this morning uh Jesse went on the retreat but she was here this morning she got up at 4:00 in the morning and came so she could teach her Bible class uh tanel went went on the retreat and she is here uh Wendy went on the retreat and she is here so you two guys weren't here this morning so uh I talked about this passage this morning Jesus told his disciples whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me so I talked about this morning we live in a culture where this is very countercultural we live in culturalist says no you don't deny yourself the way to have ultimate fulfillment the G the way to gain meaning and purpose and all that in life is for you to not deny yourself it's to self- indulge yourself whatever your deepest desires and longings are our society says that that is how God made you and you are to pursue that Above All Else and when you do that you will be happy and of course that is the ultimate thing in society the problem with it Jesus said the direct opposite of that Jesus said no he said if you want to be my disciple deny yourself he said you must he didn't say you know it's a good idea there's this a little threet Greek word this word must Dei day in Greek and it means this is absolute Divine necessity if you want to be my disciple you have to deny yourself I think you know we have a mature crowd in here except for a couple of young ones and all of us are old enough to know that those times in our life when we have not denied oursel when we have pursued our own wants and desires it might be fun and it might be meaningful or we think so right at the beginning but especially if we are pursuing and uh indulging in our deest deepest darkest things and we all have had those at times in the past right it doesn't lead to anything good I think we all know that and Jes Jesus said you have to deny yourself and take up your cross and Follow Me by taking up your cross what Jesus is saying is you have to intentionally die to yourself let me ask you a question did Jesus want to go to the Cross no how do we know that you're right I agree with you but how do we know that exactly in the Garden of Gethsemane he prayed three times father if there's any any other way Jesus was a human being I understand he was God but just as much as I'm a human being and you're a human being with flesh and blood that came through the birth canal of a woman and had to grow up through all the stages of life until he was 33 years of age the exact same way he was a human being 100% human he didn't have special Armament to protect him from physical pain and suffering and death no he whatever a human being would suffer in going to the Cross he did not want to do that rightfully so but he said nevertheless not my will but yours be done Jesus understood what it mean what it truly meant to follow the heavenly father and by doing that he went through incredible pain and suffering but he achieved something far greater than him indulging in his own personal desires for comfort and safety right he purchased our Salvation he says if you want to be my disciple that's what it means and then as I pointed out this morning this is the third most frequent thing that Jesus ever said it's recorded in all four gospels Matthew and Luke record this statement twice that's incredibly rare in the gospels the gospels rarely have statements that are recorded in all in all four of them whoever wants to save their life will lose it but whoever loses their life for me will find it if you want to save your life what does it mean to save your life what's he talking about okay maybe eternal life that's part of it but what else you want to save your life he's talking about you want to find meaning in life you want to find purpose in life you want to find what your life is all about what's going to give you fulfillment and all that you want to do it you want to save your life he says here's how you do it it's not to self- indulge that's what our world teaches that's what our culture is real big on right you do whatever you think is best no right no wrong no rules for me like the song from Frozen right and that's so fits with our culture Jesus said no you want to have fulfillment and meaning and purpose in life to be made to live for how you were made he says here's how you do it you give up your life you lose your life for me for my cause and what you're going to end up as a byproduct of that you're going to find out that you save your life you ultimately do gain purpose and freedom and meaning and ultimate fulfillment but the way the world says to get that as I talked about extensively this morning the world's ways don't work I mean would you guys say that by and large our society with people that have nearly everything is a very happy fulfilled Society is that what you see that's not what I see exactly that's why I had the scripture reading chosen uh for the this morning that I had chosen from The Book of Ecclesiastes a a book of Ecclesiastes is a book about Solomon's search for meaning and he had the means and the the the the money and the position to try everything and he did he tried everything he lists everything everything that our society says is going to bring pleasure and meaning and happiness he tried it all and he says in the end it was it was just meaningless it was like chasing the wind or vanity of vanity some some version say it just ultimately didn't didn't do what I thought that it was going to do it kind of reminds me uh Troy Aman when the Cowboys went to the Super Bowl this tells you how dated that is right uh this has been a while back I was let's see I was six at the time I believe uh anyway a little joke but not much of a joke uh 29 years ago last time they were there uh but Troy Aman when they won their first Super Bowl and yes young children yes it actually did happen one time that's in your history books but when they won uh their first Super Bowl when you know they had Troy and imit all those guys they won a couple others back in the 70s but anyway uh after the Super Bowl was over he goes into his hotel room you know and he's just kind of sitting there and he just kind of looked in the mirror and he just goes so this is it all this work all this effort all this training camp slavery and all that for for this he goes this is it this is as good as it gets he said he just felt so kind of empty it just didn't do what he thought and what people had told him that it was going to do so let me ask you this question in the clash between human values and God's values what does it look like to lose our life for the sake of the Gospel in order to save it now let me explain something verse the clash between human values and God's values that's really what discipleship is in the New Testament Jesus is calling us to live in a completely different way by a completely different value system than our world values that's what it means to be a disciple we don't live like the world does so in that what does it look like for us practically to lose our life for the sake of go the gospel in order to save it what would it look like you're looking outwardly thinking of other people ahead of yourself that's rare isn't it it shouldn't be rare among Christians but unfortunately sometimes it's even rare among Christians okay what else what would it look like for us to lose our life for the sake of the Gospel in order to save it I know I've told y'all this story before but this is this made a profound influence on me a long time ago when I was a youth minister in the 90s we took our youth group on two we mission trips to Northern California I had a contact up there who had been a preacher at a church uh at the place where I was first a youth minister in the late ' 80s anyway and uh we did a bunch of Outreach to that Community we had good teenagers and uh there was a good church there this was in Placerville California on the uh North on the western slope of the Sierra devat mountains beautiful scenery beautiful country it's the place where they first the California Gold Rush first started at 1849 we went to the park there where it first started anyway it was beautiful there was a man in that church they invited us after a day's activity of Outreach to the community and service and all that there was a man who was a member of their Church uh he was probably 40 something years old and he invited us out to their house their house is in this incredibly beautifully wooded mountainous area he had built his own cabin and I don't mean you know one of those where you order the kit I mean he tore the trees down himself cut the trees down himself the bark off of them the rebar through it whole this beautiful I mean probably a 3500 square foot beautiful log cabin in just the most pristine beautiful setting you've ever seen in your life this man was a banker had a lot of means had a lot of money had a dream job had a good family had a beautiful home and everything uh and the time that we were out there he was telling us that he had decided to do something here's what he had decided to do God uh when he had when he first started off in his life he wasn't a Christian and for years when he was pursuing his career building his Dreamhouse and all that he was not a Christian and it wasn't long after he finished all that he became a Christian and he began to take passages like we just read real seriously and so God put it on his heart to do something really crazy at least people thought he was crazy he decided to quit his job at the bank and to sell this beautiful home which is his dream home and take another job or prepare for another career he decided to move to luk Texas now have you ever been to L Texas it doesn't look like the Western slopes of the S Sierra Nevada mountain okay I went to college there and uh it's pretty prettier than Odessa okay where I grew up but that's not saying much right um but not very nice he decided I'm going to go there God is calling me to quit my job as a banker to prepare to go to the Sunset School of preaching as they called it at the time to prepare to be a gospel Minister let me tell you preachers don't make you as much as Bankers I know that uh personally uh and if I ever had a house like that one there would be an investigation right people thought he was crazy even people members of the church we trying to talk him out of it don't you find that kind of sad that members of the church would try to talk him out of it shouldn't members of the church be ones who understand what you're doing yes in the eyes of the world that seems crazy you're giving up what seems to be like security and a lot of money and this beautiful home and all that to move to lck and to eventually take a far lesser salary that does seem crazy in the eyes of the world but Jesus has called us does he not to a different set of values I don't want anybody here to get me wrong I'm not saying that all of you have to quit your jobs and become preachers okay that's not what I'm saying God Hadad and called everybody to that what I am saying and what Jesus is saying is when we follow Jesus it's going to cause us to make decisions and choose values that are very different than the world yes I would say I think Jesus means it metaphorically right here we get now let me just m say this I think he means it metaphorically here he's not saying you need to commit suicide or become a martyr however sometimes it may actually take that as there are example like with this lady that you're talking about and many other people but the Bible you there's lots of figurative language in the Bible right lots of figurative language Jesus use similes and metaphors all the time but so I think he means it metaphorically he doesn't mean literally lose our life but it could mean that I would hope I would hope that if any of us were ever in the situation where we either we profess Jesus and we confess his name we either do that to save our life or I mean or if we do that that will kill us or we deny the name of Jesus and we die I would hope I would say I'm not denying jesus' name I believe that's what Jesus has called us to they say well we'll kill you okay I would hope I would have enough conviction to be a there are people around the world who have to face that choice even today in today's culture happens all the time around the world I do believe ultimately that's what Jesus is calling us to but I don't think that's Jesus primary meaning right here I think he means in Daily Life Choices that we have to make am I going to choose like in this deal with the banker am I going to choose money and security or what God what he felt like God was calling him to do um and the decisions that we make sometimes if we're followers of Jesus we're marching to the beat of A Different Drummer or we should be yeah those are those are metaphors too whoever you know you love me you know you're going to po poke out your right eye and cut off your right hand and all that Jesus is using metaphors there he's using exaggeration on purpose to make a point we should be willing to go to whatever extreme it is to make sure that the Lord Jesus and the teachings of him are number one priority yes Jesse M yeah and you you were in Las Vegas before here yeah yeah God I mean here's the truth of the matter there there are a lot of preachers I'm not one of them but there are a lot of preachers who will tell you that if you follow the lord you know your life is going to be a rose guard he's going to bless you financially and he's going to bless you physically and everything's going to be great that's either the person is either ignorant of scripture or they're lying to you scripture does not say that I mean plainly all you have to do is look at the life of Jesus and the Apostle Paul does it look to you like their Road was really easy no and these were obviously Jesus was perfect was God In the Flesh and Paul was probably the greatest Christ follower that there's ever been and their lives was anything but easy but yet I think both of them certainly would tell you you know that was the key to us having a truly fulfilled meaningful purposeful life here and ultimately leading to your Eternal salvation and let me ask you this question for the most part why do you think even Christians have not bought into Jesus words of losing our life to save it I know there are exceptions but let's face it for the most part many Christians have the same exact value systems as the world let me just give you give you one one stat I hate the stat but it's still true the divorce statistics for Christians in the world are virtually the same shouldn't that not be please don't get me wrong if you're new here or you're not sure what kind of preacher this is I'm not a preacher who's condemning you if you've been divorced I'm very well aware we have divorced people in our church I'm not saying you're going to hell if You' been divorced you guys have been here for a long time know me better than that God's a god of incredible grace and mercy what I am saying though is shouldn't there be a marked difference between the commitment level of those who are Christians in a marriage and those who are not Christians shouldn't there be but yet the stats show the statistics are virtually the same we're deceived we're deceived we bought into the rhetoric and the thinking of the world um anybody else why do you think this is for the most part why do you think even Christians have haven't bought into Jesus words of losing your life to save it says you what right yeah yeah just shows how influenced we are by the culture that we happen to live in because let me show you this next statement this comes at the end of one of the strangest in fact I would say the strangest Parable that Jesus taught I'm not going to go into the parable but the parable of the unjust Steward or unjust manager you guys remember this story strange Parable but anyway at the end of that uh Jesus says what's highly valued among men is detestable in God's sight now I want to seize on that statement right there let me ask you in our culture in America what is highly valued what does our culture value certainly money what else status certainly what else Independence I do what I want nobody tells me anything right okay what else power likes on Facebook 500 people liked me on Facebook today oh boy I'm sorry but that just really what does that do for you what does that do for you I have 10,000 followers on Instagram Twitter whatever it is I'm not on any of that but that's how a lot a lot of people their life is about that those that's something else what else what else does our society value the only post they make are about all the great things that are happening right yeah uh God doesn't think the way our world thinks this says what our world highly values those things that you guys all just mentioned I would agree with all that Fame Fortune pleasure power you know all that stuff that our society values that says you're somebody Jesus said that's those things are detestable in God's sight God doesn't think the way we we think Steve looked like you had a good thought there yeah and I would remind you and I would remind you of that do you remember the graphic I brought up this morning that in fact it was the very last thing before the main point the second to the last slide this morning was live for the line not for the dot what was the point of that the dot or the circle is this Earth and now and our life on this Earth is a very brief open and closed parenthesis even if you live a long life like Joe and Eloise priests have 94 and 90 and a half years old she told me this morning a long life but compared to Eternity that is incredibly brief and so it doesn't make any sense to put all of our time and energy and effort hopes and dreams into the dot the circle of this Earth and this life we should live for the line which is eternity which is going to extend out to Infinity forever it makes much more sense logically doesn't it to live for that and yet we know that intellectually there's not a single person in here I think intellectually would disagree with that our problem is not what we think intellectually our problem is actually implementing that and living it out in our daily life right what did you say old no come on brother you better watch it there Jesus is asking us to contemplate and think I think a lot of a lot of our problem in society is we have such a surfacy shallow Society Jesus is calling us to think deeply about really think about the implications if you put everything into this life and what about eternity which goes on for forever it only makes sense logically to put your main efforts and energy into thinking about what's going to be after our very brief open and close parenthesis is over here on this life I want us to look at a few passages of scripture that are not going to come up on the screen turn your Bibles to the gospel of Mark and Jesus in these passages that I'm going to bring up he's talking about discipleship and discipleship is really a call to live in a different kind of way different kind of value system so look at this verse in Mark chapter 9 we're going to read just one verse verse 35 Mark 9:35 sitting down Jesus called the 12 and he said anyone who wants to be first must be the very last and be the servant of all that is very countercultural isn't it don't don't we live in a society where people want to be first nobody wants to be last they want to be first and Jesus said here's what it means to be my disciple I'm not calling you to be first I'm calling you to be last now I don't think Jesus is talking specifically about on our Wednesday night meal lines to be the person who's last in the line okay though it could have implications I don't think that's necessarily what he's talking about but what would would be some practical examples of that that you guys can think of I'm calling you to be last right how many of us get caught up in wanting to be seen with the right people in fact in one of The Parables this was recorded in Luke's gospel chapter 14 Jesus is telling this Parable he says you know when invite people to a party don't invite the rich and the people who can pay you back and so on and so forth he says invite the poor the lame and all these people who cannot repay you and he says and the Lord who sees in heaven will reward you now I think real practically real practically I think that has some implications for us how many of us tend I don't think we do it on purpose but it just kind of oozes out of us we try to be seen with and hanging with the people that are powerful influential popular I think if Jesus were in a church service today I think he would intentionally in fact I'm almost 100% positive he would because that's what I see in the gospels I think he would be looking around to find people who look like they were having a hard time people who look like they didn't fit people who didn't have a whole bunch of family with them people who didn't drive a BMW up in the parking lot I think he would be looking for those people and he'd be going talking to those people and that's who he would spend his time hanging around that's what I see in the gospels anyway and yet uh we have a hard time doing that and Jesus is saying you need to become you need to have friends but go and make friends of these kinds of people because all people regardless of what our culture teaches all people are created God's image and all people are incredibly incredibly value valuable it's not just the people that live in $800,000 houses that matter to God it's not just the people that drive BMWs and my apologies if you drive a BMW I'm not saying you're going to hell okay that's not what I'm saying but you you get what I'm talking about the way our culture looks at things that's how our culture looks at things those things Jesus said those things are detestable to God God doesn't look at things like that the person who makes $20,000 a year which as you know is really low they're just as valuable as a person that makes $400,000 a year absolutely yeah in fact a right now this passage is not the is not about that passage but it's along the same theme turn to the next chapter in Mark's gospel chapter 10 and look in verse uh 43- 45 Mark 10 43- 45 and this goes along the lines of once again adopting a completely different value system than our world has adopted Jesus said in Matthew 10:43 it's not so with you instead whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant and whoever wants to be first must be the slave of all because even the son of man referring to himself did not come to be served but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many people if you want to be great Jesus says become a servant I want to tell you something Jesus says if you want to stand out if you want to be great be a servant I tell you what if you do that you're not going to have much competition you are not going to have much competition I mean even among Christians even among Christians let's just face it we all know it's true I could give examples but I won't when there there is work to be done hard work to be done service to be done there's not a long line and Jesus said that's how you become great that's how you are great and Jesus did that I mean the example you gave washing nasty feet I'm not a foot person are yall feet people I'm not a foot person uh and especially the one who you know he's betraying you Judas and you watch his you don't skip over him I would have been very tempted to pull his toenails out skip over and pour the water on his head the dirty water whatever Jesus gets down there and washes his feet too uh what an incredible example of service that he is calling us to I want to I want to show you another passage this one is one that Paul wrote In book of second Timothy 2 Timothy chapter 3 we're looking here at just examples of a countercultural Christianity that we have been called to and in 2 Timothy chapter 3 Paul is giving a warning now keep in mind he's writing to Timothy who is who is leading a church there at Ephesus so he's writing to people like us he's writing to Christians and he giving he's giving them a warning and by implication by application he's giving us a warning so he says in second Timothy 3:1 we're going to read the first five verses look what he says he says but Mark this in other words pay attention mark this there will be terrible times in the last days let me stop right there when are the last days we have been in the last days ever since the day of Pentecost the reason I know that's because of what the Bible says acts chap 2:1 17 Peter's preaching on the day of Pentecost and these people have had you know they're speaking in tongues and all that and Peter says this fills Joel's prophecy goes back to Joel Chap 2: 28-32 and Joel said in the last days Peter saying the last days are right now I've had many conversations with people over there they say you know we're in the last days I'm like yeah I know we have been since the day of Pentecost we are in the last epic of human history human history is divided into three epics and we're in the last one and have been for about 2,000 years I don't know how much longer it's going to last it could be another 2,000 years it might be 200 years it might be 2 years years might be tomorrow I have no idea and neither does anyone else have any idea by the way if Jesus said he didn't know when it was and he did Matthew chapter 24 if Jesus said he didn't know I'm pretty sure some guy who wrote a book didn't know right that's just someone once again they're either uninformed or they're informed and they're trying to line their own po Pockets with the following in Book Sales so anyway that wasn't my point point I just thought I'd say that though but he says in the last days there will be terrible times people notice what he says they're going to be lovers of self lovers of money boastful proud abusive disobedient to their parents ungrateful Unholy Without Love unforgiving slanderous Without self-control in other words they just live however they want to and they let their desires and whims and and all that control them people like that uh Peter said one time in 2 Peter 2: 19 he says you're a slave to whatever you controls you whatever controls you whether it be money it be lust it be sex it be power whatever it is we're slave to that actually you're not actually in control that's in control of you brutal they'll be not lovers of good they'll be treacherous they'll be rash they'll be conceited they'll be lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God isn't that so true that's what our world says the way to have happiness and meaning fulfillment is to do whatever your pleasure is and then notice verse five which I want to talk about for a second having a form of godliness but denying its power have nothing to do with such people Jesus says there are people that have a form of godliness in other words on the exterior ior they look like they are Christians they have a form of godliness but they deny its power and the power that Jesus is talking about the power they deny is they may externally be going through the motions and look Christian on the outside but they are denying its power and the power is the power of God to lead and guide and change their lives they deny that power no I'm going to reserve that for myself and there are so many people that think that way let me uh read a couple of things to you that I found this week found appalling but these are recent uh recent things that I read in recent years newspapers featured a story about a woman named Brenda Blackman who enjoyed some measure of success teaching a course titled listen to the title of this course this is real I'm not making this up how to marry money the course attempts to show men and women how to marry rich people and it cost $39 to attend this course and in the course black men offered some helpful hints such as how to search through your prospective mates checkbooks to study their deposits and then assess their income levels she built her students confidence by Leading them in a chant several times to the lecture I want to be rich I deserve to be rich I am rich I was born rich chant chant chant and in one class Blackman was asked by a woman listen to this this is true she was asked by a woman in the class if it was all right to settle for a man whose income was about $100,000 a year no way she replied well what if he was perfect in every other way if he was in his Peak earning years and he was maxed out at 100,000 forget it and people are attending this course and they're lapping this advice up and when someone asked her about the place of love in such relationship she said that finding a mate with that much money is the hard part and learning to love the person is Easy by comparison in other words just get the person with the money forget about the love that's easy how could you not love someone who was doing all these wonderful things for you she said and by the way while she was teaching this she was single uh I can imagine that she was single yeah listen to this this one that one sounded outlandish this one uh I hate to say but is uh pretty uh uh I think this happens a lot I've seen it happen before in places I've been over the years a 63y old a 63 year-old woman wrote to Dear Abby to justify her adultery and here's what she wrote this is true he's also married so you know it's fine we meet once a week at a motel for 3 hours of Heaven my husband knows nothing about this and neither does my love Lover's wife and sex with my husband is even better now and it's not as though I'm denying my husband anything and by the way I also teach a class at church every week but for some reason I feel no guilt I've had uh consultations counseling sessions discussions with people over the years in various places the not exactly the same type of scenario but very similar and people see absolutely nothing wrong with that and I still teach a Bible class at church and just keep it going and everything's fine because it's once again it's what makes me happy uh what's highly valued among men is detestable in God's sight Jesus said I want to close by asking us this question right here we're talking about mean meaning in life what gives people meaning and purpose in life and our society says what gives meaning and purpose in life is to self- indulge and to do whatever makes you happy and fulfilled and all that so here's the question I want to ask what gave meaning and purpose to Jesus life I want to ask y'all tell me what was it from your understanding of what you've seen in the New Testament in the life of Jesus what was it that gave meaning and purpose to his life pardon me obviously saving all of us he didn't want to die on the cross like we talked about earlier but he knew that would purchase our Salvation And everyone's salvation very incredibly unselfish he knew he was looking forward to the reunion with his heavenly father that's right what else what Jason service yeah helping other people yeah yeah uh do you remember in the story of when Jesus is having a discussion with the woman at the well in Samaria in John chapter 4 Jesus at one point in that discussion there's lots of fascinating things in there but in verse 34 this is John 4 4:34 here's what Jesus said he said my meat is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work do you remember that statement my meat is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work now the disciples they were so clueless this just shows you the disciples looked at each other and said did somebody go to McDonald's and get him something they had no idea on what he's talking about what did he mean when he said my meat is to do the will of him who sent me in to finish his work his purpose meat or food isn't that something that fulfills us it's something that gives us pleasure something that we look forward to if it's really good right Jesus said my meat what gives me pleasure what gives me fulfillment something that I look forward to is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work Jesus said that's what gives me true purpose and meaning in life and I want to show you one more verse this is John chapter 6 John chapter 6 this talks about how Jesus saw purpose and meaning in life what gave him purpose and meaning in life John chapter 6:38 this is a great verse John 6:38 oh I'm in Luke 638 wrong verse John John 63 38 John 6:38 I have come down from heaven not to do my will but to do the will of him who sent me Jesus says you want to know what keeps me going you want to know what motivates me you want to know what I am pursuing in life to gain the ultimate fulfillment not only here in this life but in eternal life I'm here to do not my will but the will of him who sent me that is directly opposite of what our culture teaches well he did a good job he he did a good job didn't he we can learn so much from Jesus about the point that I'm trying to make is brothers and sisters instead of getting our instead of getting our information from the world about how to live and what brings fulfillment and what brings happiness and all these kind of things God does want us to live a truly fulfilled life in fact Jesus said it Jesus said I have come that they might have life and have it to the field John 10:10 that's why I came I want them to have life not only eternal life but right now Jesus wants your life right now to be truly full of meaning and purpose but the way he says to get it is directly opposite of what our world says so really the question that we all need to ask ourselves is this do we believe Jesus knows what he's talking about cuz largely sometimes let's admit it all of us at times we we have bought Into The Narrative of the world even though intellectually we claim something else what we all really need to ask ourself is do we really believe that what Jesus said will work will actually work in real life in modern America here in Kaufman County in 2024 I hope we truly do believe it and Implement in that life give up our life deny oursel take up our cross die to ourselves my life is not about my will it's about doing the will of the father Jesus said when you do that you're going to experience life to the full I just hope and pray that we all live our lives that way let's close with a prayer Our God and Father help us to be people who are truly your disciples who follow you who seek you whose ultimate goal in life is not money and fame and fortune and all that stuff that our world says help us to be people who above all we want to please you we want to honor you we want to see your will done help us to be people who are so grateful to you for the grace and mercy and love that you have shown to us that we we're not trying to earn our salvation but we're so grateful for the Salvation that you have given to us when we didn't deserve it at all that we will expand ourselves for you knowing that you will bless us help us to be those kind of people not only when we're here in a church service like this but when we leave these doors and how we live our life in a very practical way help us to show the watching World a different kind of way to live so that people will be attracted to you and to your son we pray these things in the name of Jesus our lord and savior amen if you weren't able to be here this morning if you didn't if you hadn't taken communion it's going to be prepared in this little room right over here and Matthew's now going to lead us in the song [Music] the