Dear Church Pt. 1 // Taming the Tongue

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SPEAKER_00 0:01

Hi, welcome to the Divine Life Church podcast. We're in Boulder, Colorado, and we're following Jesus by staying limited in his presence, growing in his family, and living on his mission so that hearts are awakened with his awe-inspiring love. And if we can help you in any way, reach out to usivinelife.com. For now, here's a short sermon from last week in Avine Life. Again, thanks for joining us.

SPEAKER_01 0:35

Alright, friends, if you have your Bibles, go ahead and open up to James chapter 3 in the New Testament. If you're with us for the first time or you just kind of dropping in today, so thankful to have you with us. One of the things that we've been doing this year has been we've been on this kind of unfolding journey through the New Testament, and you can always jump on the bandwagon by going to Vinelife.com/slash Bible. We also have Bible reading plans in the back. And if you don't have a Bible today and you'd like a physical Bible, there's some on the back table. You can certainly go grab one as well. But we have been together in this journey, we just finished up the Gospel of John. For the next several weeks, we are going to be perusing through a lot of these small, uh, these tiny letters that were circulating through at the church before we ended the book of Revelation at the end of the year. Um so um we're just kind of calling the next several weeks Dear Church. It's it's just imagining that uh what it would have been like to receive a letter from an apostle, from one of the church fathers as they were writing and communicating to each other via letters and offering encouragement, offering correction, offering a challenge, trying to uh bolster one another in the church. And so today we are going to be um uh just it's just a quick, a quick exploration of James. Um a couple things you need to know about the book of James. First of all, James was a half-brother of Jesus. And so uh while all the scripture um is uh you know, all of the apostles are beautiful, it's it's it's amazing to look at the perspective of a half-brother of Jesus. The scriptures would would tell us that maybe while Jesus was um you know in the middle of his life and ministry, his family wasn't quite all on board with that, as you can imagine. If your brother says, Oh, by the way, I'm the Messiah. That creates some weirdness, you know, if if if your brother says that. But it became uh it became clear later on, James would go on to be uh an incredible figurehead in the church, the church of Jerusalem. We will see all through the book of Acts. Um, he was an incredible figurehead there. He wrote this letter to all of Jesus' followers that were scattered, namely Jews scattered from persecution as the early church was moving out. They're moving out not because they wanted to or it was the most convenient. They moved out because they had to, because their lives were threatened, and so they started scattering out from Jerusalem. And so James is writing this letter to those, the twelve tribes who were scattered all across uh Asia Minor in particular. Um, and and like I already said, he was a leader in Jerusalem until he was murdered by the Romans in about uh 44 A.D. He was killed by the sword. You can read about that in Acts chapter 12, actually. Um but the the structure of this book, not that we're gonna be going into all this, but it's a juicy, it's a meaty, it's a it's it's there's a lot to sink your teeth into in this this five-chapter letter. Um it could be said that this this this letter is divided into about 12 mini teachings, and so he kind of goes into about 12 different points. We're not getting into all that, we'll get into one of those 12 today. Um, but the 12 teachings are really about wholehearted devotion to Jesus. Most of them are very challenging teachings. Um but he's calling the church up to know how to reflect that their lives would actually reflect through good works their faith. And one of the more notable passages in James is James 2, 17, where he says, faith by, he says, so also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead. So strong language from the half-brother of Jesus that he would come to the church and say, as a reminder, faith is critically important, but faith without works is meaningless. Um he would expand on that idea, and it was not meant with complete enthusiasm. In fact, Martin Luther didn't care much for James. He thought that this letter was garbage. He actually called it the Epistle of Straw. That's what he called it. And partly because Martin Luther was contending for coming, he the pivot in the church and the whole Reformation from Martin Luther had to do with um like really a disembodied faith. And a faith that didn't result in actual our lives being changed and works or in that kind of thing. Or, no, I should say this. His whole thing, Martin Luther's whole thing was salvation by faith alone, and justification is by faith alone. And so anything that would indicate that we have works to do, he that kind of grated against him, and so he called this the Epistle of Straw. Uh, but fortunately, there is much that we can take from the Apostle James, and that it's true that we need faith and we need works, and it's not one or the other. A life of faith and wholehearted devotion actually affects our lives as we move out. Amen. So it all belongs together. It all belongs together. So, that being said, let's uh we're gonna pick up in James chapter three, and he's go he's he drills into one uh one theme recurringly in this um in this five five chapters. We're gonna start in chapter three. So starting in verse one, he says, Not many of you should become teachers, my brothers, for you know that we who teach will be judged with greater strictness. For we all stumble in many ways, and if anyone does not stumble in what he says, he is a perfect man able also to bridle his whole body. If we put bits into the mouths of horses so that they obey us, we guide their whole bodies as well. Look at the ships also, they, though they are so large and are driven by strong winds, they are guided by a very small rudder, wherever the will of the pilot directs. So also the tongue is a small member, yet it boasts of great things. How great a forest is set ablaze by such a small fire, and the tongue is a fire, a world of unrighteousness. The tongue is set among our members, staining the whole body, setting on fire the entire course of life, and set on fire by hell. For every kind of beast and bird and reptile and sea creature can be tamed and has been tamed by mankind, but no human being can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil full of deadly poison. With it we bless the Lord and Father, and with it we curse people who were made in the likeness of God. From the same mouth come blessing and cursing. My brothers, these things ought not to be so, but as a spring pour forth from the same opening both fresh and salt water, can a fig tree, my brothers, bear olives or a grapevine produce figs, neither can a salt pond yield fresh water. So in eighteen ninety-nine four men met by chance one Saturday night at Union Station in Denver. Al Stevens, Jack Turney, John Lewis, and Hal Wilshire. They represented the four Denver papers, the Post, The Times, the Republican, and the Rocky Mountain News. Each had been sent by his respective newspaper to dig up a story, any story, for the Sunday editions. They needed something entertaining and captivating. So the reporters were in the railroad station hoping to snag a visiting celebrity should one happen to arrive that evening by train. None arrived that evening by train or otherwise. The reporters started commiserating. For them, no news was bad news. All were facing empty-handed return trips to their city desks. Al declared he was going to make up a story and hand it in. The other three laughed. Someone suggested they all walk over to the Oxford Hotel and have a beer, so they did. Jack said that he liked Al's idea about faking a story. Why didn't each of them have a fake story and get off the hook? So they start concocting, you know, talking about that. Jack said, John said, Jack was thinking too small. Four half-baked fakes didn't cut it. What they needed was one real whopper they could all use. A phony domestic story would be too easy to check on. So they began discussing foreign angles that would be difficult to verify. And so they thought that, well, China is distant enough. And so they agreed on China. And then they would end up writing about China. John leaned forward, gesturing dramatically in the dim light of the bar room. Let's try this one, he said. Group of American engineers stopping over in Denver en route to China. The Chinese government is making plans to demolish the Great Wall, and our engineers are bidding on the job. Harold was skeptical. Why would the Chinese want to destroy the Great Wall of China? John thought for a moment. So they had another round of beers. By 11 p.m., the four reporters had worked out the details of their preposterous story. After leaving the Oxford Bar, they would go over to the Windsor Hotel. They would sign four fictitious names to the hotel register. They would instruct the deskflers to tell anyone who asked that the four New Yorkers had arrived that evening, had been interviewed by reporters, had left the next morning for California. So then on June 25th, 1899, three of the four Denver newspapers carried this story. And the story basically at the Times read this great Chinese wall doomed. Peking seeks world trade. And we actually have a picture of some of these. Chicago demolished the old China Wall and built turn it into a highway for trade. The old wall must go. And so three out of the four Denver newspapers ran this story. This is a true story, by the way. This actually happened. And it actually picked up steam. It was only uh it actually picked up steam around the country. So not only did they report on this in Denver, but other newspapers started to embellish it further. Another large uh newspaper claimed to have spoken to a Chinese official who confirmed the story. And then check this out for Fort Wayneers, the Fort Wayne Sentinel, kid you not, I'm from Fort Wayne, Indiana. The Fort Wayne Sentinel claimed that the bricks from the wall were to be used to build dikes to contain the Yangtze River. It was only the New York Times who questioned it and said, hey, listen, if the Chinese really wanted to take down their wall, wouldn't they just use their own engineers to do that? Why would they need American engineers? And so this whole story wasn't discovered to be a hoax until 40 years later. This is absolutely a true story. And some would even say that this story became uh a contentious story in US-Chinese relationships that had something to do with the Boxer Rebellion. I think that was refuted, but it started picking up steam. This this fictitious story actually went out. It actually had a life of its own. It affected people, even the three guys, four guys, one of them I think freaked out and decided not to run the story in his paper. But three out of the four Denver newspapers decided to run the story and it had a consequential effect. Now, I just curious, can I know this is an old story, 1899, it feels like forever ago. Even for my kids, they sometimes joke to me, I can't believe you were born back in the 1900s, right? Um But just curious, you know, can you imagine a world where news outlets embellish stories to capture readers' attention? Can you just think about what that would have been like? What would it be like to live in a time where people write and say things that aren't necessarily true, but are driven by other underlying motivations? I don't know, maybe greed or fear or anger. That would just be wild to live in a world like that. But the truth is, words are powerful, words have an effect. And this is why James continues to talk to, as he's writing to believers, as they're moving out, as they're being scattered. He continues to remind them of these things. In the passage we just read, he reminds them of the power of the tongue. Though your tongue is a small member of your body, it can be what James would call a world of unrighteousness. So James does not pull any punches on this. He sounds a little, wow, wow, James, this wasn't the encouraging book letter I was hoping to get in the mail. But he's serious about this. Your tongue has the power to bless and to curse. And he's pulling on ancient biblical wisdom, Proverbs 21, 23. Whoever keeps his mouth and his tongue keeps himself out of trouble. And certainly everything Jesus had to say about our words, that out of the overflow of your heart, your mouth speaks. Scripture is very clear, start to finish, about the power of a tongue, that your tongue is, you almost have a world in your mouth. It's almost like a nation in and of itself. And so as James is writing, he's he's he's writing to them to harness, to bridle the this weapon that each of us have, that few of us consider. Why would he write about this? Well, as we've already talked about, the church was facing tremendous persecution. They were facing pressure from the outside all over. And instead of growing in wisdom and counting it all joy, the pressure from the outside was actually turning, from what we can tell, the pressure that they were experiencing was turning into a blaming and can into an internal struggle. And it was resulting in impatience. There was an impatience in waiting for the Lord to return. There was an impatience in waiting for things to flesh out. Things weren't happening fast enough in the right direction. And so that impatience transforms into fear and anxiety and blaming. That's usually the few things that give away when we're when we're being driven by impatience is we start to it starts to transform to fear anxiety and blaming. And so in what we read in James 4 and 5 is that this impatience, this blaming, it gives into a speaking evil of each other, a complaining about each other. And as he would say in chapter 5, even a groaning and a grumbling and a sighing, even just sounds against each other. Have you ever experienced that before? Where it's not that anybody, you know, it's not that you have anything evil to say to somebody, but just like a sound of how disappointed you are. Like, oh, that kind of thing. Like you don't have to say anything. James is like, even doing that, even that thing right there, it's having an effect. And so he's reminding them as they're being scattered. It's like, listen, I know you're facing pressure, I know you're facing trials, I know you're facing these things, but listen, you cannot give into this flippancy with this weapon that you've been given to wield in your mouth. And I would say in our world today, it's not just what we say, it's what we write. It's what we it's the sounds that we make, it's the actions that we express, and they are powerful, they have an effect. It was Abraham Joshua Heschel that that uh Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel that reminded us that words create worlds. Your word, your word, your words actually create worlds. And we know that that is true because all we have to do is open the scriptures to Genesis chapter 1. In the beginning. What did God do? What did God the Father do? What did Jesus do in creating the world? He didn't just think of things, right? He didn't just whoop, he didn't just snap his fingers. He actually we read that words were spoken that had an effect. God created this entire earth, this entire universe through the raw material of words. And in that same way, everything you see here, everything, most of the components of our life, is because somebody had an idea and then spoke them into the in existence. So, like this building. We just were sitting in this building, not just because it just happened, we're sitting in this building because somebody had a thought, somebody had an inspiration, and decided to speak it or write it in such a way that it actually created a spark, it created a spark of passion. It words were said or spoken or proclaimed that actually had an effect to rally a people together, right? You're sitting in that chair, whatever you think about the color of that chair, that chair was designed by a person who actually had to think of something in their head and draw it out and write it out and say, we're going to produce this kind of chair. And so it was out of an expression that that's how things get made. It's the same with your home and with your job and with your car and with your possessions and the contents of your life. Most of the contents of our life start with an idea and a thought that gets communicated through words. This is much of what happens in our entire earthly existence. And so James is reminding them because they had forgotten that their words were powerful. The words that they spoke to each other, the words that they partnered with to each other, he's reminding them they have more of an effect than you think. There is an entire world that's happening. And you know about this, right? Because all of us know all of us know what that feels like to have things said to us that have an effect. And I'm sure that you can think back in your childhood, very early on, like formative days, of words that were spoken to you that affected you. Or maybe sounds that happened in your your house when certain behaviors happened. There were sounds or grumbles or moans that happened. Right. But can't you ever get things right? Maybe some of you heard that as a child, and and it was just a question. Can't you just can't you just get it right? Can't you do it right the first time? Don't you think you can lose a little bit of weight? Right? Where you're never on time. You're so forgetful. You never show your emotions. I don't even know what you're thinking or feeling most of the time. Or on the opposite side, you always show your emotions. I always know what you're thinking, you're feeling, you're just too much. Does any of those sound familiar to you? Or maybe again, it's just that, just the oh, or just the just the the little things that we pick up, we pick up these life scripts, that when the words are spoken to us, they have tremendous effect. When they're received and they come over us, words have tremendous effect. Who you are today was tremendously affected by the words that were spoken over you. And then what we see in scripture, the words that later you would begin to speak over others. All of those things, both the words that we receive and the words that we give, affect us. And what James is saying is, listen, as the gospel is moving out, do not forget this one thing. The world is forgetting this, and in this case, the church is forgetting this, but he's saying, listen, you cannot forget, doesn't matter how much pressure, how much trial, how many, how hard the circumstances are, do not forget that your words create worlds. And this is so important. I remember probably one of the more powerful examples of this in Megan and I's life and family was back in 2013 when we were in the process of adopting our middle son Asher. And it uh it was an open adoption. So we're actually in relationship with the birth parents. So we got to meet them, and uh and and they were more or less just getting a feel for us because it's it was a huge thing. It took a lot of courage for them to meet with another couple at this, you know, this proposition. Of potentially get you know giving the child to another family. And it was it was new territory for us too. And I remember when after one of the first times we met them, the birth mother asked if we could meet with their family, with her parents in particular, because they wanted to get to know us too. And and um and so we we met them at a library, and I remember going in and we were going genuinely to get to know them and to get to know their story and let them ask us some questions about our intentions with their grandson and the whole thing. And I remember having come into that room, and uh what happened was they started sharing their side of the story, and their side of the story had to do with how disappointed they were in their daughter, and their daughter is sitting here, so this would be our son's biological mother. Um, but they they started sharing verbally to us, expressing how disappointed they were in her, how the mistakes that she made had so drastically pained them and affected them as a family, and how she's never learning her lessons, if she would have just done this, if she would have just been walking with the Lord, if she would have just been doing these things, and it was a lot of these really intense things, and you could just you could just see her just kind of starting to kind of shrink back in her chair, just the just the breath sucked out of her lungs. Because she's here, you know, trying to do the right thing. And and and there's a narrative that's going forward, and we'd come to find out later this is partly why she wanted to give us her son because the environment that he would have grown up in is would have been too much. It would just been too much to bear. And so her parents are going on this rampage on things that they think we need to know about her. And I you could just feel it. It's just these words were being spoken, and they were just, you know, you could see her sinking and sinking and sinking. And I just remember in that in that in that moment, um, the heart of God just starting to well up inside of me, and I know Megan too. And I just at a certain point we let them finish, and and we I looked at Gabby in the eyes and I said, Gabby, you need to know that you, just you being here, you are brave, you are courageous, God loves you. And and sure, certainly there's mistakes and there's there's things that are happening here that are maybe you participated in it or whatever, but you need to know that you are you are loved, and we are so honored to be a part of your story. And you could you could just see her, her eyes just started to widen a little bit. And it was almost like breath started feeling. I don't want to add, I don't want to embellish the story. So it wasn't like angels showed up in the room, but what I'm saying, you can kind of feel the exchange a little bit as I'm speaking it. There were words of death that were spoken, even if they were, you know, even if some of it was true, there was there's words of death that was spoken, but there was an opportunity that opened up for words of life to come in and to say, here's all the things that you've heard, but we want to share with you from the father's perspective, and it started to transform something. You could you could hear it, you could feel it palpably in the room. When we looked at her and we said, We're proud of you. Thank you for allowing us to be apart. What happened was we took the power of words that was meant for destruction, and I just believe it was the heart of the father that said, No, I want to speak life into this situation. And I believe this is what James is is trying to reiterate. He's like, listen, guys, there's things you've forgotten. You're turning on each other. You're prep you're pre perpetuating fake news about each other. Which is why James would start to situate everything he's saying, not in just in terms of it would be really nice if you spoke better things, it would help each other feel better. He starts to frame this all in the context of judgment. That your words are actually casting judgment, declaring a verdict over somebody else's life. So for James, it wasn't just about here's some things you can do better, so everybody feels better in your churches. And you say nice things to each other. That's not that's not exactly what he's saying. He's he starts to he starts to talk about judgment. And we read about this in James chapter four. Let's put this on the screen, Blaze, if you have this or Neil. Can you do the James chapter four verse? Oh, you don't have four? All right, let me just pull this up. In James chapter four, he says, Do not speak evil against one another, brothers. The one who speaks against a brother or judges his brother speaks evil against the law and judges the law. But if you judge the law, you are not a doer of the law, but a judge. There is only one lawgiver and judge. He is he who is able to save and to destroy. But you but who are you to judge your neighbor? It's like, okay. And he continues this thought a little further in James chapter five. He says, Be patient. Again, he's he's he's tying this back into our speech maybe being perfe perpetuated by impatience. But he says, Be patient, therefore, brothers, until the coming of the Lord. See how the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth, being patient about it, until he receives the early and the late rains. You also be patient. Establish your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is at hand. Do not grumble against one another, brothers, so that you may not be judged. Behold, the judge is standing at the door. And so for him, all of this is framed within the revelation of God as judge. Which I have to be honest, when I frame in messages, it's usually about God as Father, God as Savior, God as Almighty, powerful comforter, counselor, all true things. For James, he says, you've got to be careful what you're saying, because there is a judge at the door. And when you heap judgments through your words, when you're when you declare, when you're flippant with your words, what you speak, what you write, what you communicate, when you're flippant with your words, it's actually deciding things about other people. And there is a judge, we're reminded, that at the end of days appear into our hearts and the judgments that we've had made, he will actually have a judgment on our judgments. It's not like a chili cook-off judge where he just decides which of the 20 chilies he likes better, you know. Judge separates reality from unreality and comes to a sensible conclusion based on those things. And this is actually really good news. Some of us shy away from God as judge, it feels like too much. Why would I want to face a judge? No, no, no, guys, a judge is really, it's good news. It's sobering news if we have anything unconfessed in our lives. But it's actually really good news. If you've ever had words spoken against you, if you've if you've ever been a victim of injustice, having a judge at the end of the day is incredibly good news because there's going to come a day where he's going to unfold all the harm and all the wrongdoing and all the confusion and all the fake news and everything. We don't know the difference between this or that, or who's good or who's bad, or who's right, or who's wrong. We have a judge who will actually sift through all that and show us reality from his perspective. And he will redeem all that is lost, and everything that has been spoken to you or about you, anything that has happened in your life that is unfair or unjust, he will make right and he will make new and he will restore you into your true identity. And anything, any judgments that we have cast prematurely, of those in the church, of those sitting across the room, of those in uh of those, in particular that the scriptures are very clear. There's no there's no point in judging the world. That's what Paul would say. Don't judge the world. If there's gonna be judgment, let it happen in the household of God. And he's not talking about judgment as far as reckoning each other, you know, uh not valuable or unworthy, but but helping each other navigate and actually within the church, exposing sin where sin is having an effect, or error where error is having an effect. He said, that needs to happen in the church, but where your judgments are wrong, where our judgments are wrong, there's gonna come a day where the judge is standing at the door and the judge, he will judge our judgments. And so it's critical with our words and the things that we perpetuate, the things that we partner with, the things that we agree with, that we're participating in the thoughts and the reality of what God has to say, and not just allowing grievances or impatience or any other false motivators to propel us into stories that are untrue about each other or about the world? So a few questions for us today. Are your words bringing life or are your words bringing death? They're like, well, my words are neutral, they're not doing either. No, no, no. Your words can't they just kind of be kind of steady, kind of even keeled? No. Your words are gonna bring life or they're gonna bring death. There's no neutral here. And what makes them bring life or death is the content of our hearts, the overflow of our heart. It's it's the substance of love. We can actually correct each other in love and it brings life. So I'm not talking about never saying anything negative to each other. That's not what the scripture says. It says, do not cast judgment on each other, because your judgments will be judged. That's a scary day. But are your words, think about your words this morning. Are they bringing life or are they bringing death? Have you been held captive by words spoken over you? That might be the case for some of you in here. You're in here and you're thinking, man, there's there's things, there's people in my life that continue to say certain things, and I just feel like I'm in bondage. The Lord, the only way to replace a word spoken over you is to receive the words of life from the Father. Things that have spoken over you that might have turned into curses over you, the scripture would say, which sounds like in super intense language, but it's real. Our words can bless or can curse. Some of you have had curses spoken over you. The Lord wants to deliver you of those curses to live into your full identity as a son and daughter of God. In the name of Jesus. Are you holding others captive by the words that you have spoken? It could be a mother or father-in-law, a distant cousin, it could be a coworker or a boss. What are you saying about the people in your life? And are you aware that your words affect them? And if so, just as I'm asking the question, I just want to invite you as I'm asking these questions, if names or situations come up, you are invited to confess and to repent and to release that person of the judgments that you've spoken. And I think all of this, the last question I want to ask is this are you being flippant with what you say or what you repeat? And I think in our world today, our words are often seen as cheap, they're retweetable, they're reshareable, they come at almost no expense to us, but unbelievably costly to everybody around us. The things that we say and we think that we're saying them, um, we think that we're we're saying them harmlessly. I just I just feel I just feel the invitation of the Father for us to be reminded in the church. There are words, our words matter today, guys. The tongue is something that's powerful that's been given to us, and God has given us a voice, He's given you a voice to use, but your voice matters. The way you use it matters. So this morning, let's just posture ourselves before the Lord. And I'm just gonna put on some music, and again, I'm just gonna repeat these questions. And the invitation is just this Lord, show us anything that you would want us to know. So, Jesus, would you show us each of us this morning our words are bringing life or death? Holy Spirit, would you reveal to us words spoken to us or words that we have spoken? Just pay attention. There may be conversations that come up or interactions that come up, or names or faces, just pay attention to those. Or there may be people that you need to release and forgive because of things that they've spoken over to you. But Jesus, across this room today, we want to be people who are growing wholeheartedly towards you. We want to be people who know the power of what you've given to us. I thank you, Holy Spirit of God, you've given us your spirit to transform us from the inside out so that our heart can actually overflow into our lives. Our heart can overflow into the words, the things that we say, the things that we speak, the things that we confront, the things that we can address, the people we encourage. God, all of the things that are happening are shaping culture, they're shaping our homes, they're shaping our relationships. And Jesus, we want to be a people who know that one day we will see you face to face, give an account for everything that we've said, every person we've judged prematurely. And Jesus, would you show us, would you clean our hearts, Lord God, so that we can speak your words on this earth. Let's see this together. Let's just stand together. I'm gonna read just uh a small excerpt. I actually read this from Ray Hughes just this morning. There's more happening today, aside from Halloween. Ray wrote this today. He said, On this day, October 31st, 1517, a young man nailed 95 challenges to a church door. The sound of the hammer awakened the world as the new day dawned. The Reformation began and the world changed. On this day, October 31st, 1904, a pure-hearted young man calmly spoke of the goodness of God in a small gathering of young people in Wales. The sound of his voice awakened the world. As the new day dawned, the Welsh revival began and the world changed. And he ended with a simple prayer: Lord, we need more powerful hammers and purified hearts to be heard today. We need an awakening that turns our eyes back to the cross and changes the world again. And we agree with this prayer, God. And as we leave this place this morning, God, we speak over Boulder. We speak over our city and the cities that we're coming from on this day of death. We actually proclaim life in the name of Jesus over this whole region. I pray life over our families, life over this church, Lord God. We thank you for the world that you are creating, which is good, and you're drawing us in to this new creation, Father. And so we say, Let it begin with us, let it begin with us today. Let our words and our lives and our actions be a part of the new creation that you are establishing on this earth, the marriage of heaven and earth. And we pray together as God's people. And everybody said, Amen. Come on. Thank you, Jesus. So this morning, um, as we get out of here, we're gonna have some ministry team members up front. If you need prayer for anything, come up front, receive some prayer, um, uh, grab some light bulbs on your way, hug a nemek on your way and speak some words of life to each other. Amen. I'm gonna let you get some awesome today.