All right. It is man, it's great to be with you guys. Um, my name is Russ Butcher, and I'm one of the pastors here at Church of the Grove if I haven't met you. Uh, but I want to introduce a new member of our team and his family. Uh recently, um, the Lord has uh seen to bring uh another staff member onto our team, and it's Russ Greer, and Russ is here with his family, Ashley and Caleb and Sam and Jacob. And so y'all y'all just stand up for a second, and and I'm not gonna ask him to talk until next week. Uh but please um please speak to them, get to know them. I know they're interested in getting to know you. Um, I know it's confusing. If we're together, um you might want to call me Russ and him greer, that's my suggestion. Or or uh Russ one and two, or Russ Sr. and Russ Jr. I've heard all the jokes so far. Um uh just just call him something. And so uh anyway, great to be with you guys. Um when we started Church at the Grove in 2006, and it was really before 2006 and 2005, um, one of a couple of my mentors that that were that invested heavily in my life were were men by the name of Larry Cheek and Milton Wood. And Larry sits right back here on this back row, right in front of the sound booth, and they're part of our church family, he and Kathy. Wonderful, wonderful. Uh Milton has gone on to be with the Lord, but Milton told me something when we started the church. He said, Russ, I'm gonna tell you something that I did, that he was he's speaking to me. I'm gonna tell you something that I did in Michigan when I planted a church in Michigan. He said, I went down to the funeral home and I asked him, Do y'all ever have people that pass away in families that are dealing with loss who don't have a church or a pastor? And they said, Absolutely, all the time. Much more common today than ever. He said, Russ, you need to go down to a local funeral home and you need to um, you know, tell them, hey, you're available to these funerals. He said, There's probably it's it's one of the most pivotal times in somebody's life when they experience loss, and and and man, they get to hear, they don't, they may or may not get to hear about the gospel and about Jesus in their life. And if they don't have a church home and they don't have a pastor, a lot of times they want to have somebody to walk them through and to do a ceremony. And so I did. I went down to uh to Tim Stewart's funeral home and and volunteered. They didn't know me from anybody, so I didn't get a phone call for a long time because I don't think they, you know, they don't know who I am and what I'm gonna say and how I'm gonna do things. Once they figured out that I was not absolutely off my rocker, they begin to call me. And I begin to go and do funerals and administer to families without any church, without any pastor. Now, there are people in our church that are now part of our church that I've met that way, who've come to Christ, some who maybe have wandered away from the Lord, for some reason didn't have a church home, didn't have a pastor, some of those in our church, but I I begin to learn a lot more about the lostness and about about people and their their ideas about Christianity. Because you you ask somebody in the South in the Bible Belt if they're a Christian, what's the most common answer you get? Of course. Of course. Am I American? I mean, and you know, I'm yeah, I live. Do I live in the in the South? Absolutely. I do I own a gun, and do I, I mean, I could go going down that. So I I a lot of people, but a lot of these people had really had no clue. And I watched them walk through one of the most difficult times that we all can experience without a clue as to how to navigate that. And so there's a scripture in Proverbs that says, when when without vision, people cast off restraint. Or without vision, people perish. And what I begin to see up close and personal was people, it was people who are dealing with a difficult time in their life, but they are grasping, grasping at how they should navigate it because they don't have a relationship with their Creator. People do crazy things in grief, period. But when there is no God, there is no Jesus, it's extra crazy. I mean, it is, and it's sad. It's sad. Um, and you begin to understand that people have, they do not have a clue to the reality that God has created them, that he loves them, and that yes, we live and we die, but we will live on after. It's just simply a transition, and they don't know how to navigate that. And so when there is no vision, people cast off restraint, and and you find out they have no clue who Jesus is. And I just, these are names that I made up, but they're they're based on real people. Uh Tony is 32 years old and and single. He tries to spend time regularly reading the Bible, but he often finds himself getting distracted. And people that are in our church that say they know the Lord, they don't have a vision. And when there is no vision, they cast off restraint. And so this guy named Tony, he's gone through a loss. He'll say, Yeah, yeah, I grew up, I went to church some. I've read my Bible some, but when you look and dig deep into his life, he is he couldn't be farther from God. And and and when you don't have vision, you get bored, you do a lot of things to fill up that boredom. Um, there's a young lady that that has been a part of our church, and I'm gonna call her Monica, and she's a single mom of two kids, and she is like a lot of you, a lot of moms. She runs from preschool to gymnastics and rarely has a moment where there's not crying or pooping. I mean, it so she she would say she came to know Jesus back in the day when when she went to VBS, but uh man, she is consumed by just keeping up with life. She got married, things didn't go well, that didn't meet her needs, that didn't fulfill hers, and now she's back to being a single mom, and she would say, I want to know God, but I just don't know how. And a lot of these people maybe were introduced to Jesus at some point, maybe they heard about Jesus, but they don't know how to navigate the difficulties, they don't know how to navigate just everyday life, and and and here's the question. I think a lot of us ask, and maybe you don't you don't consciously think, well, this is a question I keep asking, but I think down below the question is this is there more? Is there more? Is there more? And see, do you ask that? Is there more? Is there more? For many of us, we've been indoctrinated in this idea that we can pray a prayer, walk an aisle, fill out a card, and that and we become a Christian. And and listen, I was introduced to Jesus through a prayer, but but I knew that later on, maybe not at that moment, I knew later on that that was simply a beginning point, not the end. It wasn't like I had got the fire insurance, make sure I'm gonna go to heaven, not go to hell. There, it was the beginning point. And the question you could ask, is there more? Is there more beyond just saying the prayer, beyond just going through the baptismal waters? At the end of the day, our lives look no different from the rest of the world around us. We're busy, we're overworked, we're tired, and and we love that word peace, but it seems to escape us. And then we feel like failures. You sometimes feel like failures at just being a human being. We feel like a failure at being a husband, we feel like a failure of being a mom. We feel like a failure in our parenting. We just we feel like failures, and and and and we know that Jesus said, Hey, you're the light of the world. He says, I'm the I'm supposed to be the light of the world, I'm the salt of the earth. Man, I don't feel very salty. And I feel like the fire is about to be extinguished. The question is, there more, is there more to it? And if you're in church, you've been in church, let's be honest. We want to act like we've got it all figured out when in reality, I think a lot of us would ask, is there more? Is there more? And yes, there is more. There is more. We're in this series uh called Onward. You know, this fresh start is the beginning of the year, uh, you know, a very exciting time in the life of our church. It's growth. We're about to transition. I keep saying, I want to want you to make sure that building is simply a bunch of bricks and concrete, and that I can't wait to get over there, but it's just a building. What really matters is are we becoming what Jesus wants us to become? See, when I when I was a kid, I remember saying, people would ask me, what do you want to be when you grow up? And I remember as a kid, you know, I want to be. You can fill in the blanks, all the common things. You I want to be a police officer, I want to be a fireman, I want to be an astronaut. And it was almost like I could just say it. I want to be. And in my mind, and you're we're all Americans, we're told, American dream, be whatever you want to be. But we've forgotten, we can say we want to be something, but if we don't understand what it means to fill the gap between be and are, and understand that word become. I can't just be a fireman. I can become a fireman. I can't just be an astronaut. See, there's a gap between the statement and reality, and you fill the gap with becoming. Becoming. See, see, here's what Dietrich Bonhoeffer says in a book he wrote called The Cost of Discipleship. It should be on your screen. He says this, and see, we we we we are saved by grace through faith. Listen, it is all it's it's all a work of God. Nothing that we can do in and of ourselves. But the same grace available to save you at your moment of salvation is the grace that will empower you to become what Jesus wants you to become. Here's what Bonhoeffer says. He says, cheap grace, and hopefully you'll see what the definition is, cheap grace is the preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance, baptism and without church discipline, communion without the confession, absolution without personal confession. Cheap grace is great, grace without discipleship, grace without the cross, grace without Jesus Christ, living and incarnate. And we have settled for a version of Christianity that centers around what we can get for ourselves, but fails to cost us anything. Thank you. I will, I'm going to. A few more of those, I get finished quicker, right? I don't think that's sincere. So why? If what we sing about and what we believe, and and and there is a Savior, there's a Son of God that has come up close and personal to show us what the Heavenly Father is like. If He saves us, if He gives us purpose and significance, then why does the Christian life seem so boring, safe, and ordinary at times? Because maybe we're not truly willing to step out in a radical way to radically follow Jesus and radically obey what He's already taught us. I think the people that are experiencing life abundantly, they have peace that surpasses understanding, they have a sense of mission, purpose, and joy. They're not loved by God anymore than all of us. They're not necessarily more anointed, but they're being proactive in their faith. They're not sitting in this uh passive posture. They're waiting. Here's the big idea for today. If you don't walk away with anything, walk away with this. Without God, we can't. Without us, he won't. Without God, we can't. Without us, he won't. And you say, Well, I need to chew on that. You chew on it. And you think about it. But when Jesus left, he put all of his eggs into the basket of disciples. He said, You go. You go. Make disciples, baptize, teach. And he says, I'm going to be with you until the end of the age. And so God is sovereign. We want to exalt God. We want to acknowledge He doesn't need us, but He desires for us to be lockstep with Him in this journey. Now hear me, hear me. I'm not saying that we work for our salvation. That's not what I'm saying at all. That comes, as I said, by grace through faith. His life, his death, and his resurrection provides for our salvation. We think that we go after the Lord, and in reality, his Holy Spirit works in us to draw us to him and open us up to the reality that we are dead in our sin. Then we are able to repent and believe and put our faith in him. Salvation does not come by works. That's not what I'm saying. Philippians 2.12, he says, work out your own salvation, not work for your salvation. But this is part of what we're talking about to become. To become. Last uh uh two weeks ago we talked about uh the first step in our discipleship pathway is to believe. It's to believe, is to is to faith God. Faith as a verb. I'm gonna faith God. I'm gonna I'm gonna live an active faith. And then last week we talked about belonging. When we put our faith in Christ, we become part of a larger family. And so today it's about becoming, becoming like Jesus in every way of our life. And if you've got your Bibles, turn to the Gospel of Mark, chapter 4. We've been in Mark a couple of weeks now. And Mark chapter 4, we're gonna look at a very familiar parable for those that have um uh grown up and read the Bible uh to some degree. And Jesus is is using these picture stories, these parables uh to teach us about this life as a Jesus follower. And so Mark chapter 4, verses 3 through 9, he tells the parable of the sower. Here's what he says Listen, listen, consider the sower who went out to sow. And as he sowed, some seed fell along the path, and the birds came and devoured it. Other seed fell on rocky ground where it didn't have much soil, and it grew quickly, since the soil wasn't deep. When the sun came up, it was scorched, and since it had no root, it withered away. Other seed fell among thorns, and the thorns came up and choked it, and it didn't produce fruit. Still other seed fell on good ground, and it grew up, producing fruit that increased thirty, sixty, and a hundred times. Then he said, Let anyone who has ears to hear listen. Everybody say listen. Say listen. And so there's four soils, two very different outcomes, three of the soils, the seed is scattered, but it bears no fruit. There's only one soil that actually produces the fruit. And so this is what Jesus is teaching. The crowd is gathered around him, and he says, He, he who has ears to hear, let them hear. This is an important thing he's trying to teach. Of course, he would use these stories, and we know there's a deeper meaning behind it. And this this parable may not make sense. We we do live in Walton County, so we're not too far from being an agrarian community. I mean, there's still I love I love this community because if I want to, if I want to go to a ball game, I can drive in one direction. If I want to go to a concert, I can go the other direction. Or I mean I can lit, I can go access a couple of places and and eat nice food, whatever. But I've loved Walton County because when you walk, when you drive through Walton County, you're still gonna see cows and horses in farmland. And so we, even though we may not all be farmers, we could probably understand this. Jesus pulls his disciples aside and he explains what he means with this parable beginning in verse 13, Mark 4, 13. Here's what he says. Then he said to them, Don't you understand this parable? How then will you understand all of the parables? The sower sows the word, some are like the words sown on the path. When they hear, immediately Satan comes and takes away the words sown in them. And others are like seeds sown on rocky ground. If you wanted to underline circle that word path, up in verse 14, underline circle that word rocky, those words rocky ground and 16. It says, when they hear the word, these are ones who are like seeds sown on rocky ground, when they hear the word, immediately they will receive it with joy. But they have no root, they are short-lived. When distress or persecution comes because of the word, they immediately fall away. Others are like seeds sown among thorns, underline, circle, that word thorns. These are the ones who hear the word, but the worries of this age, the deceitfulness of wealth, and the desires for other things enter in and choke the word, and it becomes unfruitful. And those like seeds sown on good ground, circle, underline, good ground. Hear the word, welcome it, and produce. Listen to this 30, 60, and a hundred times what was sown. 36. That's mind-blowing. He's telling us that the seed is the word of God. The word is the same. The only difference is the receptivity of the soil. And he gives us this picture. So let's explore each one of these soils a little more in depth. The first one is the path. It's the path. And you know what the path represents? It represents a calloused heart, a hard heart. The seed could be sown, but man, maybe it's the circumstances of life. It might be the influence of the world, it could be the strategy of the devil, enemy. For whatever reason, that hard, that heart remains hard. It's hard. And if you I've traveled to Israel a couple of times, and as you travel, you can see, especially along the Sea of Galilee, there's areas where these rocky sections are marked off by real short walls. Sometimes just a few stones mark off this area. And you can see the path where people have walked along a path next to those rocks, and the ground there is hard, it's callused, it's not receptive to the seeds. And so they walk on that as they sow, and some of the seed falls on that hard ground. And so the seed does not get embedded in the ground, but rather it sits on top of the soil and becomes an easy target for the birds. And Jesus tells us that the heart that is represented by this soul is one that hears the message. Listen, hears the message, but it goes no further than that. No further than that. On occasion, I think there's even sometimes a response. People are responding maybe out of excitement. Even though the seed hasn't gone deep into their heart. And we say, why? Why are they not? You think of the influence of the world, maybe their own set of circumstances in their life, and and the enemy has a strategy to keep them from receiving and becoming what God wants them to become. So that's the path, that's the callous heart. The second soil is rocky soil. The rocky soil represents a shallow heart. A shallow heart. And the soil is typically on the outskirts of the field when the farmer's preparing the field for planting. He would remove all the rocks and would throw them in a pile or make these little proper. They would line those rocks. On their property. And there's rocks everywhere. You see it if you travel there, you see pictures of it. And so this soil is immediately receptive to the word. They like what they hear. They like the message. Man, this sounds great. This is something I want to get in on. And they're happy. People, they experience life change. You can see people come out of the baptismal waters, and man, we celebrate them. But you know what? We walk back out the doors, we walk back into the world, we walk back into a family that may be full of unbelievers. And so what happens is there are hardships, there's difficulties that happen in our life. Life's not easy. Life is hard. Difficult things. And so what happens in the busyness of life, the difficult circumstances in life, we see that the enemy wants to take those hardships and to steal the joy and excitement. And man, that person's fired up. But you'll see them and they'll show up every Sunday, they'll show up to prayer meetings, they'll show up to all types of things, and all of a sudden they disappear. They're gone. Where do they go? It's because of the pressures in this world have taken that joy. Listen, they had shallow hearts. They love the the kitty into the pool. They love the shallow end of the pool. But sometimes before we can take that step or two out into the deeper waters of our faith, the enemy comes and steals our joy. And it never makes it all the way deep down in our life. The third soil is called the thorny soil. And it represents the divided heart. A divided heart. We probably can identify that uh with that in some way. Listen, weeds, this is where you can you can you can till the ground and you can um you do all the right things, but at some point weeds are gonna grow up and they're going to challenge the good seed for nutrients and for a healthy life. And and back, thinking back to Israel, weeds are everywhere. They compete with good seeds for the moisture and the nutrients of the soil. The weeds and thorns will crowd out the root system, literally strangle new plants to barrenness and to fruitlessness. And this is the those of us can identify with that, we've responded to Jesus, but our commitment to him is in competition with the things that we tend to want to hold on to in the world. I know when I came to Christ, I had a person named Matt tell me, Russ, if you want all that God wants for you, you're gonna have to let go of some relationships, some behaviors, some things in your life that maybe you've held on to. And I was dating a girl at that time, wasn't my wife, and I went and told her that I cared about her, and I began to share the gospel with her, and I said, please come, please come on this journey with me. And she said, I can't. Rough family, rough background. I don't think she understood the gospel. But the fact that I have connected had connected in relationships in this church, I had people speaking wisdom in my life and helping me understand Russia's gonna be okay. Let her walk away. Because God wants so much more. One time I um I've been a football sports chaplain back in my early days. I'm I'm a recovering youth pastor, and and so I and I've been around some great leaders and chaplains that work with college football players and different athletes and stuff. And so one of my chaplain friends had led this major athlete at the University of South Carolina, led him to the Lord. And he said, All right, chap, what do I do now? And he said, You need to realize you're gonna have to let go of some of the relationships that you know will pull you away from the Lord. And literally, literally in the middle of the night, this offensive lineman, 6'6, 320 pounds, started going down the hallway in his dorm, knocking on doors. And his his friends would come to the door and he'd say, Hey, I want to tell you about Jesus. If you love Jesus, we're still good. If you don't live, if you don't love Jesus, I gotta let you go. I mean, I I would imagine him speaking to a wide receiver, scout team, somebody. He said, Man, give me Jesus. Give me Jesus. I'm gonna be with you. I mean, I that's intimidation, right? But he said, He got it. He got it. And my friend Ken said, Man, you know what? He got it. He understood it. He may have taken it a little bit, literally, and and maybe should have waited until the next day, but he got it. It's something to celebrate. We've got to let go. Here's what 1 John 2.16 says. For all that is in the world, the desires of the flesh, and the desires of the eyes, and the pride of life is not from the Father, but is from the world. And so we talk about the lust of the flesh is temptation to feel. Those are passions, desires, and uh, we we think of sexual temptation and uh things of that nature. What do you do? What what how what do we lean into to combat that? And the word is integrity. That word integrity comes the word integer. You know what that word integer means? It means it's the whole number. So what he's saying is, you've got to give your whole heart. How do you combat uh the lust of the flesh? The lust of the eyes is temptation to have, it's possessions and money. And so what do you combat? How do you combat this um this temptation with the eyes and warning things? Generosity. The only thing that kills greed is giving away. And then it's the pride of life, it's the third temptation John talks about here. It's popularity, status. How do you combat those things? You combat it with humility. It's posture where you know you're not less important, but you just think less of yourself. It's not all about me. And so churches today are filled with people that have divided hearts. As a result, they aren't living in the fullness of the life that Jesus has provided. And the fourth soil is this, this is the good soil. It's good soil. And it's representative of what we would call the fruitful heart, a fruitful heart. And this is where the soil has been loved and it's been nurtured. Uh there's there's investment, the gospel has been shared. Maybe you've gone through some of these other stages and other, maybe, maybe you walked away and and and maybe at some point your heart was not good soil, but now it's good soil, and you are you're you're completely surrendered to the Lord, and you begin to see the fruit of that life. You know what the key is? Jesus said this in John 15, 5. He says, I am the branch. I'm the vine, you are the branches. I am the vine, you are the branches. If you abide in me, you will produce fruit. For without me, you have nothing. And so we've got to abide in Jesus. We've got to, we've got to connect with Jesus. And so here's a few things I've learned. To wrap all this, here's a few things I learned. God controls the growth. We control the conditions for growth. God controls the growth, we control the conditions for growth. And so, if the soil is hard like a path, that soil needs to be tilled up. Some of us need to be tilled up. Some of us haven't yet understood completely what repentance means. Repent and believe. It means to turn away and wholeheartedly give your life to Jesus. If the soil is rocky, you can be removed, you can remove large stones and rake out the small ones. If the soil is thorny or full of weeds, you can pull the weeds or destroy them with Roundup, my favorite chemical. There's a spiritual version of Roundup. You spray, it's one of the most tangible, it's one of the most, like, I you spray and something happens. I mean, I love that. Instant. Never mind. That's a that's if the soil is thorny and full of weeds, you pull the weeds or you destroy them, it takes, listen, salvation is free. Discipleship, sanctification, becoming like Jesus takes effort to become. To become. Here's one of the things else I've learned. Christianity is not a one-time decision, but a lifetime of discipleship. It's not a one-time decision, it's a lifetime of discipleship. It's one of the biggest travesties in the American church or Western church. We've boiled down our faith to a one-time repeated prayer. So we can have this sense of security, but we have not wholeheartedly turned to follow Jesus. That's what he desires for us. Listen, Matthew 7, Jesus says this. He says, likewise, verse 17 through 20, he says, likewise, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, and a bad tree cannot bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Thus, by their fruit you will recognize them. In Matthew 16, verse 24, Jesus told his disciples, If anyone, if anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. So that's that's that's the desire to become, to become, is I I let go, so I can become. Without God, we can't. Without us, he won't. How do we do that? How do we do that? Now this uh this scripture is not uh in the slideshow. I wish it had been. If I'd have thought about it, it would have gotten in there. But I this is a scripture that literally this this morning uh that came to my mind that fits so well in this um in this passage Romans chapter 12, verses 1 and 2. 12, 1 and 2. He says, I appeal to you therefore, brothers, sisters, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. He wants all of you. And he goes on in verse 2 do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect. And that word transformed in this passage is where we get the English word metamorphosis. It's the word metamorphoo in the Greek. And it's this picture, uh, it's this idea, the picture that comes to mind is a caterpillar that metamorphs into what? Now, I've been to a lot of funerals, I've been to a lot of weddings over my life, I've been to a lot of events. I've never seen anybody release caterpillars as a means of celebrating. It just doesn't go well. Now, as a kid, I I would I played out in the woods. My parents moved out to the country, and and and you would, you know, you'd be out in the woods, and it'd be the time of the season where these caterpillars would grow on the trees, and the caterpillar falls upon your neck while you're playing. That's different than a butterfly landing gently on your hand. Caterpillars can be creepy. Butterflies are always used to give us this metaphor of beauty and peace. And here, listen, listen to me. Many of us have settled for a caterpillar existence as a follower of Jesus without knowing that there is so much more. And we come in and out, we go through our life, and we live an existence slithering on our bellies rather than flying and experiencing everything God has for us. He's called us to transform is to become, to become what he wants us to become. And there's ways to do that. Listen, it takes effort. Spiritual habits are part of that. We've talked, we talk a lot about that in here. Spiritual habits, prayer, fasting, reading the word, worshiping together. I mean, you go down the list of things that you do that take your discipline and effort. Andy Stanley said this your direction, not your intentions, determine your destination. And so you've got to direct, you've got to turn. Part of that is living in biblical community, groups, serve teams, getting to know people beyond just the welcome time before a sermon, and then to listen and obey the Holy Spirit. Is there more? Yes, there's more. Let's say it together. Is there more? Yes, yes. I came across an ad on social media about this super cream. It's this cream that you can rub. Listen, this is what it how it was presented to me. Just rub this cream on your belly and it'll give you a six-pack. What man does not want to have that magic cream? And so, confession, I tried it. I I took a picture. No, I didn't. No, I didn't. Listen, it's gonna take a lot more than some cream to get a six-pack out of this. You know what it would take? It would take, it would take work and discipline. It would I got I gotta get rid of a bunch of more than just that cream is gonna get rid of for any muscles to show. And it would take discipline, the right diet, it would take, you know, weight, all this stuff that that probably I don't know if I am willing, able to do at this point in my life. Maybe by June. Maybe by June, right? No. Is there more? Yes, yes, there's more. Yes, there's more. What are you becoming? We think, well, I'm I'm okay. I'm okay. I'm I'm I'm content where I am. Well, maybe God's not content with where you are, and he wants you to become. He wants you to become, he wants you to go through metamorphosis, he wants you to surrender and allow Jesus to form himself in you and through you. He's the one that promises, did the work. He says, make yourself available. Make yourself available. Would you pray with me? Let's pray together, Lord. Thank you for truth. Thank you for the hope, the life, significance that comes through relationship with you. Lord, help us not to be satisfied, comfortable. Help us not to be just, I guess, content with the world. God help us to be pliable, moldable. Lord, help us to have a holy dissatisfaction with the way that we are to the point that we will take the necessary steps and allow you into our life to form us, to mold us into the character of Christ. For some of us, and that may be you, if you've never put your faith in Christ, this would be the morning for you to say yes to Jesus. He came and he lived and he died and he rose again to give you life. But he didn't just give you, he didn't give you life just for that moment, he gave you life so you could become, become all that he desires for you. And so this morning, if you want to come and pray, you want one of us to pray with you, please reach out, please reach out. We close this time together. Let us reflect on the word of God, let us lift up and worship the presence of God and continue to see the purpose of God fulfilled in our life. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.