Built to Finish

Heat [music] [music] up [music] here. >> [music] >> Well, good morning. How you doing today? >> It's great to see all of you. So many of you here this morning. My name is Pastor Jackie. I get to lead uh the collective of churches that we call ourselves Cross Church and Phoenix certainly a very important part of that and we're so thankful to be here today. If you have your Bible, open it to Nehemiah chapter 6. While you're turning there, let's just let Pastor DJ and his team know how much we appreciate the great job that they're doing. Man, they are knocking it out of the park with your help and we're thankful for it. Hey, we're going to be talking about vision uh in this series. We've kind of shared uh this thought all the way through the book of Nehemiah that vision is what leads to victory. And so we're so passionate about that that we have scheduled uh across the collective an important vision night on February the 1st. Now we don't often say at Cross Church, this is one thing you need to be at, but this is one of those things you really need to be at. And we hope that you'll either register using the QR code or a card or just verbally uh let Pastor DJ know that you're and your family are going to be attending a special vision night at our uh Elm Mirage location where we're going to be outside under a big tent. It's going to be an amazing evening and we would really, really, really love for you to be there at that. So, please make plans uh on February the 1st at 5:00 p.m. uh to attend that meeting because vision does lead to victory and we've seen that in the life of Nehemiah. Nehemiah has received a vision from God. He's really a case study on how God can give a leader a vision and how God can use it along with his people to literally rewrite the pages of history. And that's exactly what's happened in the book of Nehemiah. Uh Nehemiah, as you remember, uh was there uh in a foreign uh city, didn't even live in Jerusalem, but he heard the story of the walls back in Jerusalem, his his homeland that had been brought to ruin. And a burden began to welp up in Nehemiah's heart. And he said, "I can't do this. This can't happen on my watch." And then he began to enlist the help of uh even a pagan king and he resourced it through that pagan king and he began to enlist his uh countrymen to rebuild the wall. When we get to Nehemiah chapter 6 in verse 15 it says the wall was completed. And we might think well end of story. It should have ended the whole book in chapter 6. But we're going to see that when the project is done, the work has just begun. But there is going to be enemy attack. I've said for years that that that leaders, good leaders see before and they see more. Good leaders see before it happens. They envision what the future might be. That's vision. And they see more than what the average person can believe would ever happen. They say, you know, God can do this. And we see more. That's certainly true in Nehemiah's life. He saw the walls rebuilt. He saw the glory of the city restored. He saw the glory of God being honored. He saw all of that before and he saw much more than anyone else saw. That's also true as uh you are Christian parents here today and you have your children at church and and as a parent, I know this. I see uh things in my kids before they see it. And I also see more than they can think. Man, I believe God's going to do something in your life. And that's why we commit ourselves to bringing our children to church, to doing devotions with them through the week, to training a child in the ways of the Lord. It's true in pastoral leadership. Pastors get a vision from the Lord. They see before the rest of the people. they see more than what the rest of the people are able to see. And that's also true in your personal life. And we're going to see here in Nehemiah, there are some corporate lessons that we're going to see that apply to the church at large. And there are individual lessons for you as an individual believer that you're going to receive in this teaching this morning as well. It's true in your personal life. Think about this. God saw before and God saw more in your life. God said, "Man, I see that person and I know how the rest of the world sees that person, but I see so much potential in them. I see so much uh opportunity in them." And he sees it before everybody else sees even before we see it. And he sees so much more. There's a great verse that kind of applies to that in Philippians. It' be a great life verse for you if you don't have a life verse. It's found in Philippians 1:6. It says, "I am sure of this that he who started a good work in you will carry it out to completion until the day of Christ Jesus." He says, "Man, I saw something you and I believe God is going to finish it." God sees before. He sees more and he looks down the tunnel of time and he wants you and I to finish. Well, remember this key thought. God wants to work for us and in us so that he can work through us. That's what he did in Nehemiah's life. That's what he wants to do in your life. He wants to work for us and in us so that he might work through us. Let's say that together. God wants to work for us and in us so that he can work through us. And yet all the way, and it's true in Nehemiah's, and especially we'll see this morning in chapter 6, all the way through, the devil comes to fight against you and I finishing well. The devil wants to fight at the very end. We might think the walls are completed, the the victories won, the battle is over. And that was not the case in Nehemiah. The walls were almost done. Everything had been done but installing the gates, but the opposition was still at work. How many of you know the devil is always going to be a fighting against you? We got some witnesses. The devil is always going to be fighting against us. We learned that lesson in the story of the temptation of Jesus. Jesus himself was tempted 40 days and 40 nights in the wilderness after his baptism. You'll remember the story. And the Bible says that after his temptation that the devil left forever. No, there's an interesting little verse there in the Gospels where it says the devil left him for a season. And bless the Lord, you may be in a season where the devil's left you alone for a while, but just bear in mind that the devil uh doesn't kick a dead horse when you start moving and you start living for God. There will be satanic even opposition in your life. The devil according to the book of Ephesians has his schemes. The Bible says be wary of the schemes of the devil. Uh or the methods of the devil. Some of you didn't know the the devil's actually a Methodist. He has his method. So if you're recovering Methodist, you'll get the joke. Uh but um what are some of the methods that the devil used against Nehemiah? That's is the question we're asking by way of message today. What are some of the methods that the devil used against Nehemiah in his day that he's still employing in your your life and my life today? And and just look at it and see if you can identify any of these going on in your life. The first thing that the devil does is that he uses an invitation. Uh look at the invitation in verse one. It says, "When Samalot and Tobaya Gisham the Arab uh and the rest of our enemies, that's who they were." They were not friends. They were enemies heard that I had rebuilt the wall and that no gap was left in it. Uh though at that time I had not installed the doors in the city gates. Sambalot and Gisham sent me a message. come let's meet together in the village of the Ono Valley and he says what they were doing is they were planning to harm me so I sent messengers to them saying I am doing important work and cannot come down why should the work cease while I leave it and go down to you four times they sent me that same proposal and I gave them the same reply this looks like sort of a inoculous invitation it looks like sort of something that isn't that big of deal. It is a simple, pleasant invitation. He's almost to the end of the project when this invite comes in the mail. It's important reminder that it is possible to fail just feet from the finish line. Now, think about your life. It's possible for you to fail just feet from the finish line. Here's what I used to think and what I now know is just utter craziness. But when I was a younger pastor, and some of you like, "Well, you're a pretty young pastor now. Thank you. I appreciate that." But when I was much younger, not only just a younger pastor, but a younger Christian, here's what I used to think. I used to think there would be a time that I would get too old to be tempted to sin. And then I got old and I realized the fallacy of that thinking. It is possible for you and I to finish feet from the finish line. [snorts] If you follow social media any you probably heard the story of a very popular Christian author Philip Yansy who some of you may read of his some of his books New York Times best-selling books like uh what's so amazing about grace and other popular titles at 76 years old this past week he came out and confessed to an 8yearlong affair with a married woman 76. I'm thinking there might be a time in my life where I get too old to sin. No, as long as we have air to breathe, there's the potential for us to fail just feet from the finish. And I love Nehemiah's response here. There's this there's this invitation from his enemies. It's an invitation not for peace but for compromise. That's what is behind the story. You'll see it uh unfold for us more as we read through the rest of the chapter. But it was an invitation to compromise what he was doing. An invitation to come to the Ono Valley. Historians tell us that that is the present day location of the Tel Aviv airport. And right there on now the site of the modern Tel Aviv airport, they were inviting him to come down for the Ono Valley Peace Conference, but it was really a compromise conference. And I love Nehemiah's response in verse three. He says, "I am doing an important work and cannot come down. I cannot cease the work that God has called me to." It is dangerous and even tempting to talk about the work of God and never do the work of God. I can't tell you me how many times over 40 plus years of pastoring I've heard people say to him is, "Preacher, we ought to do be doing this. We ought to be doing that. I've got a great idea for our church." And and over the years, I've just learned to say, "Well, that's a great idea. Why don't you do it?" >> Oh, no, no, no, no. Not me. other people because there is a temptation in the Christian walk to talk a good game but not do anything. Uh it's the modern-day equivalent of armchair quarterbacks. Now, I wish you could come to one of our pastor meetings. We meet every Monday at 8:30 every week. And I wish you could come to those meetings because we have some guys in that room. And I confess that I'm sometimes tempted to be one of those guys, too, that believe that we know absolutely everything that could possibly fix the Arizona Cardinals. >> [laughter] >> If Mike Bidwell would come to our staff meeting tomorrow morning, he would know who to hire as the head coach, who to employ as the starting quarterback, what offensive and defensive schemes to run, and we've even got a few ideas for special teams. Why is that? Because it's easy for us. You listen to sports radio through the week, you listen to Gambo and Burns and all of those guys, they're all armchair quarterbacks. And we love that. It's easy to call in and tell Gambo and Burns what you ought to do to fix the Arizona Cardinals. We all know they just need to sell a team. [laughter] Get a different owner. Lord Jesus. Maybe we could be in the playoffs one day, which is going on today, which we haven't been in in years. Nehemiah says, "I'm not going to be an armchair quarterback. I I'm not going to come down here and talk. I've still got work to do. And so it starts with this very uh very uh pleasant seemingly invitation, but it moves to a very serious insinuation. Look in verse 5 and N. It says, "Sambalot sent me that same message as a fifth time by his aid who had an open letter in his hand." Important language here. Open letters are open letters. Everybody can see them. He's been traveling throughout the province. No doubt he's shared it with others. He says, "I have an open letter and it was written. It is reported." That's another key word in this sentence structure. Reported. It's people are talking. People have reported among the nations. And Gisham agrees that you and the Jews plan to rebel. that this is the reason you're building the wall according to these reports and you're to become their king and you've set up even prophets in Jerusalem to proclaim on your behalf. There is a king in Judah. These rumors will be heard by the king. So come, let's confer together the series of rumors and innuendo and insinuation. It was what in essence it was was a frontal attack on Nehemiah's motives. Have you ever seen that happen in a church or maybe at a job or maybe in your personal life where God begins to do some things through you? Because God wants to work in us and for us so he can work through us. And so God has been working in you and for you and now he's starting to work through you. And people come alongside armchair quarterbacks and criticize not what you're doing but why you're doing it. Critiquing your motives. Any church that starts to grow and and start other churches the way cross church has, I can tell you we have been the target of rumors. not about what we're actually doing, but the motives behind why we do what we do. And it is a frontal attack here on the motives of Neab through the means of anonymous rumors. Anybody ever had a rumor told about them? It's harmful, isn't it? It's hurtful. Uh here here we see uh three things about these rumors and then three ways that Nehemiah responds to them. This is really helpful and practical in your own life because if you start doing something from the Lord, there'll be people that question your motives and create false rumors about you. Here's the first thing about a rumor. The source of rumors is almost always anonymous. Uh it is reported by who? Oh, I don't know. Some people are talking though, preacher. It's been reported pastor, people aren't happy who? Well, I can't really tell you that they shared it as a prayer request, but I know they're not happy. I I went to my first full-time church when I was 26 years old. It was a great church. I got to preach to about 500 people every Sunday as a young young preacher. And uh actually the search committee uh fibbed to the church and said I was 27 when I was actually 26. I don't know what the difference was there. [laughter] I was still too young to be there. But this church had a great history and and there's a a little old lady. I wish I could say little sweet old lady. She wasn't that sweet. Uh worked in our church office as our treasurer. And she for the first I I stayed there seven years. the first three and a half years she would just keep bringing preacher I don't know I've heard this I I don't know I heard that and u I realized that it really wasn't other people telling her this stuff she was it was what it was her I mean usually the anonymous person is is the source of all the rumors and finally I said to her I said Helen I appreciate you I love you might have been a lie I don't know um I'm trying to love you but if you can't stop talking like this, uh, you're going to have to resign. And it took me, don't think I was real courageous, it took me three and a half years to figure out I can stand up to this lady. And I said, uh, I'm going to leave for lunch. Uh, if you can't change the way you talk, um, just leave your resignation uh, letter on my desk and I'll receive it. You know what happened? She became the most positive person in the whole church. Oh, God is moving, man. We should join him and all of this stuff. Because rumors most often the source of them is anonymous. And if you are the victim of anonymous rumors, I encourage you to to to use my policy for anonymous rumors. It surprise you to know that a preacher sometimes over the years will get anonymous letters in the mail. And over the years, I've just decided that I don't even know how many anonymous letters I get anymore because my admin assistant gets in trouble if she tells me. I'm like, if they don't if they put their name to it, we'll talk to them. But if they don't put their name to it, I can't do anything about it. Just file 13 that thing. And so, just ignore them. Uh the second thing about rumors is the substance of rumors is normally false. He says uh you're you're wanting to become a king and and and Nehemiah says that's that's a lie. That's false. Rumors are normally the skin of a story stuffed full with a lie. At the very best, it's a halftruth, and halftruths kill as much as total falsehoods. Finally, the scheme behind rumors is to harm others, to do harm to reputations, to harm churches, to harm children, to harm families. Look how Nehemiah dealt with these rumors. First of all, he told the truth. I like that. verse 8 uh he says uh there is nothing to these rumors you are spreading. He just told the truth. The problem with rumors is they dry up under the hot light of sunshine. They just shrivel. They can't stand. They're like a vampire when the when the when the sunlight comes out. They just shrivel up under the hot heat of the sunlight of the truth. Secondly, put the blame where it belongs. Look in the first second part of verse eight. You are inventing them in your own mind. You created these rumors and these lies. You're inventing this in your own mind. He shifted the blame back where it belonged. And thirdly, and most importantly, he he says we need to go to God. Look at verse nine. For they were all trying to intimidate us, saying they they will drop their hands from the work. It will never be finished. But my God, don't you love those sentences in the Bible? But God, things are going to hell in a handbag. But God moves. My business is being But God did something. My kids are being But but God interveneed. Nehemiah says, "But God, I'm going to you and I'm going to strengthen my hands through my interaction with you." Do you know the best way to deal with rumors is to let the process of time run its course? It's just the best way. years ago, I'd started a church in uh northern Peoria in Vistansia, which was the time the number one master plan community in North America. We were the first church to start there. And I'd hired a guy that I'd met after I moved to Arizona from Oklahoma. And he became a fast friend. I love that guy. And um we were golfing buddies and hung out together, just good friends. and uh my good friend got involved in some sin that he would disqualify him from serving on our church pastoral team. And so I had to let my good friend go. And there were all sorts of questions about that. And yet I made the decision and I I said, I'm not going to air this dirty laundry in front of the whole church. The people that need to know know. The people that don't need to know don't need to know. That's why some people are on a need to know basis. And so I just decided not to share the reason for his departure. I didn't feel like it would be healthy for his family or the other families in our church that were affected by it. You know what happened? The rumor meal began to circulate in that little new church. And the things that I had accu that u I had to release my friend for were being accused of me. What do you do? My wife told me what to do. Normally I listen. She said, "YOU NEED TO TALK ABOUT it the whole church. You just need to air all that dirty." I'm like, "No, no, no, no, no, no. I'm going to choose to let the process of time deal with the rumor. I'm just going to let my life lived. Not perfect. There's some things people accuse me of that are true, and I I need to own those." This wasn't one of them. I tell my uh wife this often. I tell our church staff or pastors this often that you don't argue with crazy because crazy doesn't know when he or she has lost the argument. And some of you are spending way too much time trying to argue with crazy or people that have bad motives that are trying to bring innuendo and inflections upon your motives. Just remember this. When you have a false accusation against you, your temptation is to try to explain it away. But your friends don't need an explanation, and your enemies won't believe your explanation. So just go on about your business and [clears throat] go to God. >> He will strengthen your hands. Amen. >> Uh this these methods get ever increasingly more serious. It starts with an invitation and then uh an insinuation and then it moves to outright intimidation. Look look at verse 10. It says, "I went to the house of Shemiah son of Delha, son of Methropel, who was restricted to his house." And that is exactly the correct pronunciation of those words if you're wondering. Uh, let's meet in the house of God inside the temple. Let's shut the temple doors because we're they're coming to kill you. They're coming to kill you tonight. But I said, should a man like me run away? How can someone like me enter the temple and live? I will not go. I realized that God had not sent him because of the prophecy that he spoke against me. Tobiian Sandabalt had hired him. He was a hired hand. He was hired so that I would be intimidated to do as he suggested, sin, and get a bad reputation in order that they could discredit me. They are now threatening literally to kill him. But but the warning of harm and the threat of death are really just a plot by a pseudo priest to get Nehemiah to sin and enter the temple. Because Nehemiah, remember, was not a priest. For him to have taken them up on this invitation was not a means to save his life from a death threat. It was a means to get him into the temple where he was not allowed to go because he was not a priest, which would have been sin and then discredit everything else in his life because of that one mishap. But Nehemiah knew his Bible better than the priest. Certainly better than Sand Balot and Tobaya. And he said, "I'm not going to go. What kind of man like me would run anyways? And I'm going to stand my ground because the intimidation was to get him to compromise his faith. And it comes in this setting from someone who you would assume to be a fellow follower of God, of Yahweh, a priest. Let me remind you that did you know that some of the most dangerous attacks on your faith come from people that you think share your faith? Some of the most dangerous attacks on your faith come from people that you think share your faith. One of the most dangerous attacks on my faith came as I was planting that church I referenced earlier in North Peoria. We lived for a short time in Anthem. A friend of mine had gone to Anthem to start the very first church there many years ago. A church that did amazingly well. Went from zero to a thousand in less than four years. It was just really the talk of the town. And God had used it to to reach so many people. But then my friend, my college buddy who I came out at as an invitation to plant a church here in Arizona began to slip into some really dangerous heresy. And I remember I was in the car with him and another gentleman from outside of Detroit, Ron Mtori, who had written a couple of kind of new age Christian books. And I began to listen to their conversation. I was in the backseat of that car coming home from a golf game in Cave Creek driving back to Anthem and they were beginning to talk about this whole thing of universalism. Universalism is an old old uh heresy, but they had they cleaned it up with skinny jeans and uh uh all of that. And I remember the moment on the 17 driving from Cave Creek up to Anthem that they were talking about some of their newly held beliefs and I said, you know, I don't believe that. I believe Jesus is the only way. And I believe outside of Jesus, people spend an eternity in a devil's hell. Can I tell you, it was that car ride that ended my friendship with my college friend. Not because I wanted to end, but because he wanted it to end. And now today, my college buddy who started a great church that got to a thousand people, no longer goes to church, doesn't even believe in the tenants of the church, and has turned his back on the gospel. And my temptation that day was to go along for the ride with them. Sometimes the most dangerous attacks on your faith will come as it did in Nehemiah's case from people that you think share your faith. Let's get to the last point here quickly. It ends with an infiltration. This is how the devil works. During those days, in verse 17, the nobles of Judah sent many letters to Tobaya, and Tobaya's letters came to them. For many in Judah were bound by oath to him, since he was a son-in-law of Shakana, son of Ara, and the son of Jehookan, had married the daughter of Messylum, son of the Burch of Burchiah. These nobles kept monitoring Tobayasiah's good deeds to me and they reported my words to him and Tobias sent letters to intimidate me. What we have here is a classic devil scheme of infiltration. Now we see that in our family lives. Many times you see this in a family that once held very very faithfully to the tenants of the gospel in the New Testament faith. One very easy, I'm not trying to uh pile on here if this is in your life, but I'm just going to say that one very easy illustration for that is godly Christian men and women who get to an age in life that they decide that for instance in the area of the issue of homosexuality that that is now permissible. the the the Bible did not change from the time they started reading it as young kids to the time that they many times see that change in their middle age or even older. What happens? You know what happens? A grandkid decides that he or she is going to be gay. Now grandma and grandpa have a crisis of faith. Will they call that sin sin or will they change what they view as sin? [clears throat] We we see here that it's a son-in-law in this story. Son-in-laws are always the worst, right? My mother-in-law is living with me for the last two months. I understand that. It was a family member that infiltrates. Um I was up in Casper, Wyoming. Any of you guys been to Casper, Wyoming? Any Casper, Wyoming people? A couple people. Not much in Casper. Some oil production. A lot of wind and cold air. But I was up in Casper, Wyoming a couple months ago for a meeting. And uh one of our missionaries that was there at that meeting uh gave me a ride to the airport. Um doesn't take long. You come up to the front door of the airport. It's great. I want to live in Casper. But uh he was telling me and I believe it to be true that in Casper of all places there's a very high density of satanic worshippers. And he said what these satanic worshippers have figured out is the best way to do damage to the church is to mainstream their lives. So they don't wear goth and all that stuff. They look like everyday ordinary people. and they infiltrate churches in Casper and they build relationships inside those churches and they eventually have some level of influence in that church and then they begin to sow seeds of dis division and discontent and disharmony inside that church in order to destroy it. I heard that story and I said, 'I think I got some devil worshippers in my church. And I say that tongue and cheek, but I will tell you that anytime that you are being used by the devil to destroy the fellowship of a local New Testament church, you are functioning just like a Satan worshipper. [clears throat] And what people may think you share their faith, but you in essence don't. Well, we got to run to the end here. Let me leave you with one final thing here out of this text. And really, we find it in chapter 7. I referenced it earlier. This final thought, when the project is done, the work is just begun. Bible tells us the walls are done. By the time we get to chapter 7, the the gates have all been installed. The doors in the gates have all been installed. Everything's finished. And Nehemiah says, [music] "The work's just starting. The whole book doesn't end in chapter 7. There's many more chapters [music] to follow." Why? Because we may think the project is done, but the work has [music] just begun. This church you're sitting in today is a great example of that. A little over eight years ago, uh, Cross Church in Surprise decided to take this on [music] as a as a church plant. And and we came in here and this building was [music] not like it is today. It was a mess. And I literally helped paint the walls. Don't look too [music] close. I helped remodel the stage. I helped pull out the baptistry. I helped [music] hang that television on the back wall. Matter of fact, that television I went and bought and personally brought here from Walmart. [music] I had a lot to do with the construction and reconstruction of this campus. [music] And now it's a beautiful place, isn't it? I mean, you come in here and these beautiful, lovely beams, and you see the beautiful garden that you're going to make even more beautiful in a couple of Saturdays. [music] Uh you see the children's ministry area. I just walked through it this morning when I got here early. It's just amazing. [music] and the coffee bars and and the stained concrete and and uh the backyard [music] now and all of the activities and Alice's Avenue has been [music] almost paved. I mean, it's beautiful. The temptation would be it's like [music] we did it, we're done. But no, [music] when the project is done, the work has just begun. Now, if you read in chapter 7, you'll find the work involved two things. To defend [music] and extend. They put people on the walls. They said, "Man, you got watch duty. We're defending. There's no [music] there's no reason to have a wall if you're not going to defend it." And to extend the influence of the kingdom [music] of our great God. Did you know that's always going to be the mission of [music] every church? We got to defend. The enemy is always going to come at us. Infiltration is real. Intimidation will happen. [music] Insinuations will be brought against us. There'll be invitations for us to compromise. But we have to defend. [music] You know, the Bible says that God and the Holy Spirit, Jesus Christ [music] are defender of the brethren. Satan is told he is an accuser of the brethren. You can either act like the [music] devil or you could act like God. God defends his church. But then the future is always going to be wrapped up in extending to reaching more people with the gospel [music] to starting more churches across North America and even in Asia where we're at now. It's always going to be [music] this work is never done. The work of the church is like building a plane in midair. [music] It's never done. Some of you who work in construction, I envy you sometimes. You go [music] out, you build a house, you look at the house, you like this built the house. But this house is never going to be built until Jesus comes back. [music] We have to defend and extend. Finally, I just want to bring to your attention in [music] closing that Jesus himself [music] spent time in this city around these walls that Nehemiah and his [music] and his group have have rebuilt. As a matter of fact, Jesus was crucified just outside the city walls. [music] Galtha, the garbage heap, the city dump, the place of the skull. [music] And Jesus whipped with a cat of nine tails, his back pulverized, they place a wooden cross on him, and they make him carry his own cross, his own instrument of death to the top [music] of Calvar's mountain. And there they impale him with three rusty [music] spikes. And they hoist that cross into the air between God and man. And it was there on that cross that Jesus was tempted [music] again because remember the devil left him for a season but not forever. [music] And one of those there tempted him said if you're the son of God [music] come down off that cross save yourself and us. [music] And is as if Jesus quotes Nehemiah, [music] how can I come down? The work I'm [music] doing is too important. Because of the work of Christ on the Calvar's cross just [music] outside the the the walls that Nehemiah built, Jesus [music] hung and he died in our place for our sin so that we might have a relationship [music] with God the Father. Let's pray together with [music] heads bowed and eyes closed. Some of you are in the room today and man, you are under attack. [music] I get it. Maybe the rumor mill is spread. [music] I just want to challenge you. Tell the truth. Put the blame where it belongs. [music] But just go to God with it and he will strengthen your hands. [music] And if you're here in the room or watching online and you don't know Jesus as your personal Lord and Savior, this church exists to make [music] Jesus known to you. and we would love to have the opportunity to talk to you about the Lord. [music] If you're in the room or even watching online, you could text to 9400. Let me say [music] that again. 9400. You could text all one word. I said yes. And in doing that, [music] you're saying, "I'm considering giving my life to Jesus." and one of our pastors, most likely Pastor DJ, will reach out to [music] you and begin a discussion of how you can know Jesus as your savior. If you're in the room today and you'd like [music] more information about that in real time, uh, Pastor DJ will be in the back of the room, maybe near the I [music] said yes corner, and you can go by there and he can instruct you on how to have a personal [music] relationship with the God of heaven. Lord, we love you and we thank you for this day. We pray God that you would be with us as we [music] continue to worship you now. For we pray in Jesus' name. Amen. And amen. Let's stand and worship him one final time. [music] >> [snorts]