Built on Commitment

Heat. Heat. Hello. This became a a twoman project here uh because we're having issues with the wireless. So, can you hear me? Okay. All right. Praise God. Thank you, uh Jordan. Well, um I'm Pastor DJ again. If you would open your Bibles to Nehemiah chapter 9, the very end, we're going to be picking up on verse 38. And as you turn there, um I know you thought, man, that's that's enough announcements. We don't need anymore. Uh yeah, I got a few more that I saved just for for Bible flipping time as you're turning over to Nehemiah uh 9:38. But um we are going to be covering Nehemiah uh through Nehemiah 10 today. next Sunday morning, Nehemiah 11 and 12. And then we were scheduled to finish Nehemiah 13 on Sunday, February 22nd. Um, our lead pastor of the collective, Pastor Jackie, will actually be here Sunday morning the 22nd, preaching um a one-off sermon kind of kicking off the Let's Go uh disciplehip campaign. And so, and it's not going to be Nehemiah 13. And uh so I was left with two decisions. Um man, we could either leave Nehemiah undone, which just hurt my heart. I couldn't do it. Couldn't do it. So, or we can preach Nehemiah at a Sunday night service on February 15th. So, I know short notice, but if you want to join us, Nehemiah 13, Sunday night, February 15, 6 15th, 6:00 p.m. in here. It's going to be simple. There's no bait and switch here. What you're going to get is you're going to get some more music. We'll do a little unplugged style, like plugged in, but unplugged, you know, and then I'm going to preach Nehemiah 13. Um, and so just come fellowship and uh if you want to join us for that, it'll be an all family service. So, no child care, anything like that. Just bring them kids in here and we'll worship together. Um, I love seeing the children that we already have in here. So, praise God for that. But that is next Sunday the 15th 6:00 here in the sanctuary. Um, one other thing is we have a food pantry here that gets used a lot. Part of uh a growing church is um needing some help with some stuff and we have more people using it and we're running low on food. So Roger and Kenu who run our food pantry uh bless their hearts have been supplying some of those things um and we need to help them. So, if you can pick up any canned foods, um, like non-p perishables, canned meats, and stuff like that that they're low on. If you have any other questions, I can connect you with them. But maybe when you're out grocery shopping already and you want to pick up a few items, go ahead, bring it here to the church, and we'll re help them restock uh this pantry that is used every week pretty much by folks in the neighborhood needing food. Um, I want to open us up with a word of prayer this morning. Um, some of you know Jane Allen. She has been coming here for a while. Um, you and if you're new, of course, you may not know her, but she recently was attacked by a pitbull dog who basically almost chewed off her entire left arm. They have been working for the past month or month or so, seeing if they can save it. And I got confirmation the other day that they cannot. She made the difficult decision to have her left arm removed today at 5:00 p.m. Surgery is scheduled. So, I would like to open us up in a word of prayer. And if she's watching online, hi Jane. We're praying for you. Not sure if she is, but she might be. She does follow us online when she can't be here. But let's pray um for our service, of course. And um for Jane. Father, we come before you with Jane on our hearts. Lord, we pray for her surgery today at 5:00 p.m. um to remove her arm. Lord, we just pray that you would um I'm not sure if it's her right or left arm now. I'm trying to picture. I think it's her right arm, Lord. Um but God, uh can't imagine the difficulty in that decision that she made, but she did tell me that she's at peace with it, God. And she just the pain really is the hardest part, and it this will be the quickest way to relieve her of that. And so God, we pray that you'd be with her. Give her patience, endurance, um trust in you for the process, God, and for a quick recovery afterwards, God. I just thank you and praise you for her trust in you. It is exemplary. It is a model for us, God. And we dedicate this time of preaching your word um to you, God. May it be glorifying and honoring to you and edifying to each other in Jesus name. Amen. Well, we left off last week at the very end of chapter 9. Um, we're picking up in verse 38 because verse 38's more closely tied with um, chapter 10 than it was 9. And chapter divisions are not like part of the original, right? Nehemiah is not sitting here writing Hebrew saying chapter 10. Um, that's inserted for our help and assistance, but this flows and this begins another section. If you recall the last couple of weeks and chapters here, the Israelites were strongly convicted by the reading of God's word. They had humbled themselves, confessed their sin. Remember, they put on sackcloth and ashes and are coming to the Lord, confessing sin, contemplating God's faithfulness in the midst of their sin and disobedience. And so God's word, here's the flow, is God's word led to conviction. And the conviction led to the commitment. We're going to see here in chapter 10. God's word led to conviction. Conviction to commitment. But God doesn't convict his people just for fun. No, he doesn't convict his people for the sake of them being convicted. When God convicts us, it is to do something in us, right? We ought to respond to the conviction of God when we come under it. And not just on Sundays, right? Not just on Sunday. Every day when we come under the conviction of God's word or at any time, not just when we're at church, it's a constant in our lives. We should and ought to respond to it. And so here in Nehemiah chapter 10, the Israelites have continued to study God's word. If you remember in chapter 8, Ezra reads it for like 6 hours, right? Well, they didn't just stop there. They didn't have a one-day Israelite revival and then shut it down. They continued, remember the fathers, the heads of the families came and they studied God's word again the next day. And they came across the fact that they're supposed to be celebrating the feast of boos in Leviticus. And it was that time. And so they got everyone together and said, "Let's go get this stuff and obey God and celebrate the feast." And they're continuing to read God's word day in and day out and come under the conviction of it. And that leads, it produces in them a desire to recommmit themselves to God. And that's what we're going to look at this morning. And I pray, my prayer is that as you and I continue to respond to the spirit's convicting and leading in our own life, I hope I pray that it motivates you then to commit yourself more and more to him. So I'm going to start with uh 9:38. Oh, let me go back a page here. All right. All right. Nehemiah 9:38. In view of all this, everything that just happened, we are making a binding agreement in writing on a sealed document containing the names of our leaders, Levites, and priests. Those whose seals were on the doc on the document were the governor Nehemiah, son of Hackaliah, and Zedekiah. And I know what you're thinking, right? Is he going to read all those names? Right? Is he going to read all those? Um, and normally I would, but for the sake of time, uh, I'm going to skip down. But what I do want you to see is who's leading the way. Down through from verse 1 to 27, it's all names. There's 86 total names in the verse in verse uh, in the first 27 verses. But who is leading the way? Our man Nehemiah, the governor, right? He is leading the way as he should, as any good leader should. He's leading from the front, not the back. His heart's desire is not only that he would be faithful to and obey God. He wants and desires everyone else on this list to join him in that. But let's jump down to verse 28. It says the rest of the people, right? So there's people whose names aren't even on here. This is a a starting starting list, but there's more. The rest of the people, the priests, Levites, gatekeepers, singers, and temple servants along with their wives, sons, and daughters. Everyone who is able to understand and who has separated themselves from the surrounding peoples to obey the law of God. All who could understand. So that would include probably children too who can understand. Verse 29, join with their noble brothers and commit themselves with a sworn oath to follow the law of God given through God's servant Moses and to obey carefully all the commands, ordinances, and statutes of the Lord our Lord. Isn't that great? Of Yahweh, our Adonai. That's why I like that. So, I'm going to use these opening verses, this whole first section as the overarching theme. So, if you have a handout, um, this will be that first big blank. If you don't, there's some on the back if you would like some from the back table. Um, and if you need a Bible, you can use the one in the seat back in front of you. That's our gift. You can take it, use it, mark it up, whatever you want. But the overarching theme is this. Committing to honor God. Okay, right there. Boom. That top. Committing to honor God. Because that's basically what they're doing. These are the people committing and I should say right recommitting themselves to God and his law. And so I'm going to break up verses 30 to 39 into two sections. Verse 30 and 31 is committing to honor God in our relationships with the world. So you'll see the words surrounding peoples repeated multiple times or some translations will say the peoples of the land. The peoples of the land. It's talking about surrounding nations right around Israel. Verse 32-39 is committing to honor God in our relationship with God. And so you'll see a switch in verse 32 where they they use the words the house of our God are repeated multiple times over and over. So let's start with verses 30 and 31. It says this that these are the these are the contents of the vow they're making. Okay. Verse 30. We will not give our daughters in marriage to the surrounding peoples and will not take their daughters as wives for our sons. When the surrounding peoples bring merchandise or any kind of grain to sell on the Sabbath day, we will not buy from them on the Sabbath or a holy day. We will also leave the land uncultivated in the seventh year and will cancel every debt. So the first thing we see here is Israel's commitment to honor God by not intermaring with surrounding nations. What you need to remember is that forbidding to intermar was not a racial issue. This is a worship/holiness issue. Okay? For example, when God was giving commands to Israel as to what they should do when they go into the promised land, there weren't in there yet. This is Exodus. They're not in the promised land yet. They're going to go in. And God is saying, "When you go there, do this, this, this, and this." It's Exodus 34:13-16. And so God says this, "You shall tear down their altars and break their pillars and cut down their asherim." These are idols. For you shall worship no other god. For the Lord whose name is jealous is a jealous God. Lest, right? Do this. If you don't, here's what's going to happen. Exodus 34:15. Lest you make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land. And when they after their gods, and sacrifice to their gods, and you are invited, you eat of his sacrifice, and you take of their daughters for your sons, and their daughters after their gods, and make your sons after their gods. As you can see, the Bible uses pretty explicit language to talk about idol worship, right? God wanted Israel when they went into the promised land, the land of Canaan, the land of all the itites, right? the Canaanites, the Hivites, the par the parasites, right? All the itites. He says, "When you go in there, I want you to destroy everything." Why? You want to know what's going on in pagan land? Pagan worship. Part of that is the worship of Baal. And we say that, but it's probably Baal in Hebrew. Va. Part of that is the worship of a god called Mullik. Let me give you a a a a brief picture of this because it gets vivid quickly and I will just paint it. I'll outline it for you and you can fill in the rest. But here's the worship of surrounding nations. Mollik worship. They build a statue of this image and they make him with hands out like this. Big old hands, right? And then there's a hole underneath for fire. What would they do? Sacrificing children on it. What do you What do you mean? They put it into the hands of Malik. Light the fire. Do you think God wants anything to do with that? Absolutely not. Right. So when you go tear the idols down, worship the living God alone. Because if you don't, you will get caught up in their idol worship. It will only hurt you, not help you. And guess what happens? They go and they intermar. This is before Nehemiah. And I kind of want to get into chapter 13, but I'll resist. Okay. But before Nehemiah, they do this and it leads Israel to commit such abominations that God's like, "I'm done with it." And then you have the Babylonian and the Assyrian captivity, right? God does not want that garbage for his people. And so he says, "Don't do this." Right? And that also meant not not marrying pagan worshippers because God knew. Lo and behold, he was right. Duh. He's God. He's right. Lo and behold, he's always right. If you marry a pagan or marry an idoltor, the level of holiness goes down, not up. Okay? The non-believer has a far more negative effect on the believer than the believer has a positive effect on the non-believer. And that's exactly what happened to the Israelites. They start marrying pagan and guess what? It didn't turn the pagans Israelite. It turns the turn the Israelite into pagans and they begin to sacrifice their children to the god of Mollik burning them on the his hands as a worship. That's what happens. God reiterates this in Deuteronomy chapter 7. You shall Deuteronomy 7:3 and4 you shall not intermar with them giving your daughters to their sons or taking their daughters for your sons for they would future tense because this is Deuteronomy before they enter the promised land he's like God's predicting the future this is what's going to happen if you do they would turn away your sons from following me to serve other gods then the anger of the Lord would be kindled and it was against you and he would destroy you quickly So you say, what does this have to do with us? Simply we must commit. First point, commit to honor God in our relationships with the world by honoring God's design for marriage. First of all, God's design for marriage is between one man and one woman. Right? That's it. Homosexuality, polygamy, any distortion of God's design for marriage is sin. Plain and simple. Like we have that. But this is actually more talking about like the interaction of God's people with the world. And so we're focused on a Christian man or a Christian woman's relationship with the world when it comes to marriage. If you're married already, here it is. Remain faithful in that marriage. Honor God in that marriage. Be a picture, right? Ephesians 5:22. Be a picture of Christ's relationship with the church in your marriage. But if you're here and you're not married, just don't marry an unbeliever. If you want my pastoral heart on this, don't even entertain the idea. Well, DJ, I want your opinion. I'm thinking about it, but he has no interest in God. No, just no. No. No. No. One of our New Testament teachings on this is in 2 Corinthians 6:14. It's in a few places, but Paul says to Corinth, "Do not be unequally yolked with unbelievers. For what partnership has righteousness with lawlessness, or what fellowship has light with darkness?" And he goes on to give a few other examples. But that passage, not being unequally yolked, applies to more than marriage, yes, but marriage nonetheless. If you're here and you're not married, will you settle for someone who hasn't separated themselves from the world and given themselves over to Christ first? Don't settle for that. Look back at verse 28. Don't forget this oath. Verse 28 of of um chapter 10 is being taken by everyone who has what? separated themselves from the surrounding people to what? Obey the law of God. What they're saying is we only want to marry others who've separated themselves from the surrounding nations to obey the law of God. Because if we start marrying people not separated from the world and have no desire to obey the law of God, the law of Moses, we're going to end up in idolatry again. Yep. Exactly. You will. There's a a fascinating question that God asks. One of my favorite questions that God asks because it just points to such rich, glorious truth in all the Old Testament is found in Haggi chapter 2. And in Haggi chapter 2, God is speaking. And he says in verse 11, he poses f two really wonderful, fascinating questions. Haggi 2:11, "Thus says the Lord of hosts, ask the priests about the law." Go ask them to tell me what the Bible says about this. If someone carries holy meat in the fold of his garment and it touches with his fold bread or stew or wine or oil or any kind of food, does it become holy? The translation is they would have holy meat that is set aside, right, for sacrificial purposes. it and he would pro and they would carry it sometimes. If he's got holy meat in his holy garment, right, he was supposed to wear certain things and be holy, set apart. If he's carrying this meat and something that's unholy touches it, this bread or wine or stew, something that's not uh been made holy or set apart when the holy touches the unholy, um does the holy make the unholy holy? The priests, Hagi 2:12, the priests answered and said, "No." Correct. You've passed the first test, right? The priest answered and said, "No." Then verse 13, Hagi 2. Then Haggi said, "If someone who is unclean by contact with a dead body uh touches any of these, does it become clean?" The question is this, right? If uh in the Old Testament, if somebody had touched a dead body, it would make them unclean. They'd have to go through a cleaning process, right? To go back in to the people. If an unclean person were to touch holy food or something that is set apart holy like in the temple for use in worship sacrifice. If the unclean person touches the clean or the unholy touches the holy, does the unholy make the holy unholy or does the unclean make the clean unclean? Yes, it does. The priest answered and said, "It does become clean." So they know what God's word says about it. What's God saying? Holiness is not transferable, but uncleanness surely is. Holy meat would be something set aside set aside for sacrificial purpose. But if it came into contact with unholy food, it wouldn't make the unholy food holy. The opposite takes place. The unholy food makes the holy food unholy. However, uncleanness is transferable. If an unclean person who touched a dead body touched holy meat, that person's uncleanness renders the meat unclean. Know why? Because it all points to the Lord Jesus Christ. That's why. You want to know the only one who has the ability to transfer holiness? God. That's why when Jesus touched unclean people, what happened? They became clean. They didn't make him unclean. If he touched an unclean person, he made them clean because of his perfect holiness and righteousness and cleanness and purity. He has the one. He has the ability to do that, not us. It all points to Christ who can what? marry an unclean bride. You and I, the church is called the bride of Christ, right? And it's not your righteousness that you bring to the table or your holiness that you bring to the table. No, Christ makes you holy. Christ makes you righteous. Christ makes you clean from your sin. He's the one. He's the one who can, not us. There's other ways to share the gospel. We don't need to go missionary dating, right? Single Christian man, single Christian woman, resolve to stay single until you can only marry a man or woman who has what? To use language from the text, separated themselves from this world and has resolved to love, cherish, and obey God more than you. How's that for a dating challenge? Find someone who loves Christ more than you. So they can build you up and you can build each other up. Don't settle for someone who has no interest in the Lord. But hey, you know, I can make it more. No. And so the second thing we see here, verse 31, committing to honor God in our relationships with the world by trusting God for our provision. Now, there's a lot we could say about the Sabbath, but the bottom line is this. Let me give it to you. Bottom line, an Israelite who observed the Sabbath is an Israelite who trusts God. An Israelite who broke the Sabbath is an Israelite who does not trust God. You might be thinking, what is verse 31 all about? Right? Surrounding peoples are coming to sell uh in their to sell on the Sabbath and they won't buy it. What's all this? Right? Basically, what they're doing, it's fascinating. Um, they're addressing the the Israelites right here. They're addressing a sinful loophole that they themselves created in their observance of the Sabbath. So, let me let me break it down a little bit more. Here's the deal. Israelites who wanted to keep the Sabbath but still get some gains, right? still make some profits or still get some things would buy from surrounding peoples who would sell them on the Sabbath days. So, Israel would buy them and claim, "Hey, I'm buying stuff on the Sabbath, but I'm not the one working. They are. I'm just buying. I'm still honoring the Sabbath. I can't help it if pagans come to me. They're working. I might as well take advantage of that. But hey, I'm not the one working. That's what they're saying. And they're acknowledging that their little sinful loophole that they created is sin. And they're acknowledging it. And that's why they're prohibiting themselves from doing it. The Sabbath for Israel was trusting and resting, right? trusting that resting was better than trying to be productive on the day or year that you weren't supposed to work. Remember, they also had Sabbath years. Give the land rest, right? So, when you have a Sabbath year, an Israelite farmer who was faithful to the Lord would take a year off from tilling and planting and harvesting their field. And to the world, that might look like you're an idiot. That's not very smart. You're going to take a whole year off from working your land. And an obedient Israelite would say yes because God will provide. It would be a display of trust in God for provision if they observe that. But every time they bought from pagans on the Sabbath or worked the land on a Sabbath year was a statement to God that we don't trust you to provide for us. So I'm going to figure it out myself. I don't need you, God. That's what they're communicating. I'll take matters into my own hands. I can't trust you to provide. So, I'm working the land on this Sabbath year when I'm not supposed to. That's what they were doing. So, what I want you to see is verse 31 is a vow to trust God to provide for them. What about you? Do you trust God to provide for you? Because some Christians think the solution to all their financial problems is more work and more overtime. Now, I'm not against working extra or whatever. I've been there. But I know some believers who serve the idol of time and a half on Sundays, skip church, work more, and expect God to bless it. Now, I'm not talking about those who may have to work or are forced to if there was an emergency or something. Uh I've been there in my previous um uh job. If there's an emergency or catastrophe or something crazy going down like I'm get, yeah, you get called. Okay, that's fair, right? I'm not talking about those who may have to or have to go in. But often times, professing Christians choose making more money on the Lord's day over worshiping God together at church on the Lord's day. We got to get those priorities straight, right? Don't turn the Lord's day into your day. This is my extra money day. It's the Lord's day. And so we come and we worship him, serve him, obey him, and trust him with our provisions. And so I'm thankful that you're here. There's something going on later today. I forgot what. Um, you know, and sometimes people like, well, I can't come because I got preparations for that. Okay. Okay. But I'm appreciative of those of you who are here coming to church on the Lord's day. And I don't doubt that there are many of you who are like, you know, there's more. I could be productive. My job does does offer me benefits or incentives to work on Sunday and I have, you know, I don't have to, but um, you know, it's really lucrative. That's what I'm talking about. I'm not talking about if you have to. I'm talking about if you don't and you choose to and not come worship the Lord. Let's move on. Second section. I know I'm running out of time. Let's read 32-39. So, this is a continuation of their vow. We will impose the following commands on ourselves. To give an eighth of an ounce of silver yearly for the service of the house of our God. There you see the switch, right? Here's what we're going to do with people of the nations, okay? Or the people surrounding us. Here's what we're going to do with the house of God. the bread displayed before the Lord, the daily grain offerings, the regular burnt offering, the Sabbath and new moon offerings, the appointed festivals, the holy things, the sin offerings to atone for Israel, and for all the work of the house of our God. We have cast lots among the priests, Levites, and people for the donation of wood by our ancestral families at the appointed times each year. They are to bring the wood to our God's house, to burn on the altar of the Lord our God, as it is written in the law. Verse 35, we will bring the first fruits of our land and of every fruit tree to the Lord's house year by year. We will also bring the firstborn of our sons and our livestock as prescribed by the law. And will bring the firstborn of our herds and flocks to the house of our God, to the priests who serve in our God's house. We will bring a loaf from our first batch of dough to the priests at the storerooms of the house of our God. We will also bring the first fruits of our grain offerings of every fruit tree and of the new wine and fresh oil. A tenth of our land's produce belongs to the Levites. For the Levites are to collect the onetenth offering in all our agricultural towns. Verse 38. A priest from Aaron's descendants is to accompany the Levites when they collect the tenth. And the Levites are to take a tenth of this offering to the storerooms of the treasury in, you guessed it, the house of our God. Four, the Israelites and the Levites are to bring the contributions of grain, new wine, and fresh oil to the storooms, where the articles of the sanctuary are kept, and where the priests who minister are along with the gatekeepers and singers. We will not neglect what the house of our God. Here we move on to committing to honor our honor God in our relationship with God first by giving God priority in supporting the ministry. You can see how they shifted from the relationship with surrounding peoples to the relationship with God in God's house. And their first commitment here is to support the ministry. Right? You see, give silver, bread, grain, wood, etc. So the house of God can function appropriately and worship happens as it should. Now, you might be thinking, well, that's easy for you to say, DJ, like you're part of the ministry here. Of course, you want us to support you. And I do. I do unapologetically. I do want your support because it's biblical, right? We support each other. But this isn't just about financial support, though. You see that? That's part of it, right? They're giving silver. That's fair. So, there you go. But I'd argue that this has more to do with our commitment to the church in general. Their commitment to the temple is exemplary of what our commitment should be in the church beyond finances to our time, energy, desire, service, support, prayer. All of these demonstrate our commitment to give God priority in supporting ministry. The pastor is just part of the ministry. It's us, right? The church that is the ministry. Why does God give shepherds in Ephesians chapter 6? He says or I think four or six he says you know I give you pastors and other leaders and stuff why to equip the saints for what the work of ministry it's not I give you a pastor so he can do all the ministry right it's I give you these leaders and teachers of the scriptures and all that to equip other people to do the work of the ministry as well this is a team effort is us working together in godly healthy ministry and so this leads to our last point committing to honor God and our relationship with God by giving him our uh giving him priority and giving him our best. Did you notice how many times the word first was used? I try to emphasize that, right? First fruits of their land, firstborn of sons, firstborn of herds, even your first batch of dough, right? First fruits of grain offerings, all to the house of God. So a simple question, does God get your best or your leftovers? Giving God leftovers takes no faith, right? Why? Well, you know what you have left. Okay, Lord, here's your cut, God. Right? Here's your cut. I know what I wound up with at the end of it all. So, here's here you go. That takes no faith because you know what you got, what you don't. Giving God our best, our first is what takes faith. when you don't know what might happen, but you give to God off the top because he's worthy of it. And I'm not gonna give you that. It's between you and the Lord, right? That piece of it. But it is biblical to give him the first fruits, the best, not your worst. Is God the first to come to mind when stewarding what he's given you? Or is he last in line? And so I want to close with this. Look back at verse 28. I think it's it's foundational. Um they were separated from something to something from surrounding peoples to obey the law of God. The same is true for us as New Testament believers. You are separated from the world. Not just to be in La La Land or in neutral. You are separated from the world to Christ. You are separated from darkness to light, from death to life, from sin to holiness. Does your life reflect that truth? Some of us separate ourselves from darkness only to run back to it. Right? Or we separate ourselves from sin only to be infatuated by it again. I know we'll struggle. Not saying that it's a struggle. We wage war. We have our flesh that we still wrestle with. Right? Paul wrestled with with it as well. He He's right there with us, right? But we wage war, spiritual war against the flesh. John in first John says, "The things of this world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life are not of the father. They're of the world." What's of the spirit? Galatians 5, right? Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. Fruits of the spirit. Does your life reflect that? If you're here and you don't know Christ, you're not separated from the world. But you can be. And I would love for you to come to Christ today. Today can be the last day where you're married to the world and you are brought to Christ, the bridegroom. And if that's you, I would love for you to get my attention. You can come down. You can meet me in the back at the I said yes corner when there's music going. Just get my attention and say, "I need to talk to you about what it means to come to the Lord Jesus Christ, to know him as my personal Lord and Savior." Say, "I don't want my sin anymore. I don't want this world anymore." Just look around. I mean, we could go on and on, right, about the things of the world. Just open their news. Look at how our world treats children. It's kind of like Mollik worship but a new way, right? It's pretty bad. It's pretty bad. And if you don't want any part of that, I invite you to come to Christ who brings us right out of darkness into his marvelous light. And you are invited now to come to him. I want to invite our worship team up as we close with a song. But don't let that distract you. Um, if you if you're if you're here and you say, "I'm convicted of my sin and I need to respond to that. I need to come out from darkness and into light. Come from the world into relationship with Christ. Come on down to the front or you can come on. You can meet me in the back." Um, let's pray. Father, we thank you um for your grace and mercy. We thank you for your word. I pray God that you would help us to, as James says, not just be hearers of the word, but doers also. God, help us to just have a heart desire to honor you with our lives. Lord, I pray for anyone who's here who may be lost, may not know you as their personal Lord and Savior and is caught up in the ws of the devil or just caught up in the mess of the world and sin, God, that they would come out of all of that into the truth. Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the father except through him. I pray Lord that if if anyone's here is in need of that that they would be bold enough to come talk about it in Jesus name. Amen. Let's stand as we sing our last song.