The Need for Righteousness Part 1 - The Heathen

Romans chapter one. We began in Romans one last week. So, we're continuing this week. Does sort of tie in with Memorial Day in a way not in the best way you might say but it does and questions, some questions this morning, is America in trouble? Are we a Christian nation?

A moral nation. Does it make sense to sing God bless America? When America, metaphorically speaking, in many ways, is spitting on the face of God. Does it make sense anymore to put in God we trust on our currency? Or pledge to one nation under God.

And is it is it just an American problem? Or is it a humanity problem? Is it something new? Or is it something very old? We have seen before.

Unfortunately, it seems quite clear at the moment which direction American society is heading and it is not a good one. No, it is not just an American problem and it's not just America and yes, we have seen this before. Maybe not personally with our own eyes but generations past as well. It is a human condition called sin and let go unchecked. It always leads to the same place.

And it isn't a good one. Let's go to the Lord in prayer once more before we continue. Lord, thank you for your word today. Thank you that our faith is not in our country. Our faith is not in our leaders.

Our faith is not in ourselves. Our faith is in the Lord Jesus Christ, our savior and redeemer, who has changed our lives and all who have come to him by faith and made us to be the children of God. Lord, we do pray for those in our country today that do not know you, who need you, that Christians that live in this country would be a brighter light to bring the gospel and to shine forth in a world that desperately needs you and Lord, I pray that as we leave this place here in just a little while, that we would go forth with a renewed vigor to be that salt and light that others around us desperately need and that our savior has called us to be. In Jesus name, we pray. Amen.

Last week, we looked at Paul's introduction in verses one through 17. We learned just a little bit about Paul. Paul described himself in verse one as a servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, separated unto the gospel of God. His recipients were the saints in Rome and by virtue of God's preservation of this scripture for us, also the saints in Largo and Clearwater. His message, for I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ.

Why is it that Paul is not ashamed of the gospel of Christ? Because it is the answer of all that ails humanity and we'll look at some of what ails humanity today. It is the only solution and once again, we see today, what happens when men ignore God and how much we desperately need a savior. In verses 18 through 32 that I asked brother Vogt to read, we see God's the beginning of God's indictment on humanity that spans through chapter three verse 20. Like indictments brought forth in a courtroom, God goes through a list of things that justifies his wrath upon humanity and also speaks to their need of a savior.

Paul having finished his salutation and introduction to the gospel now delves more deeply into the need for the gospel. The need for a righteous redeemer, Jesus Christ, to redeem unrighteous man worthy of death and not life. Romans three ten, as it is written, there is none righteous. No, not one. Romans three twenty three, for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.

Romans three twenty three, for the wages of sin is death but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. First Corinthians fifteen twenty two, for as an Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive. Paul will make his case against man as divided into at least two groups. We'll look at the first This morning, the first, the hidden. Idolaters, pagans, and others who have lost all moral bearing and interest in the things of God.

Those he calls here the hidden or we do. And the second group, the moralist and the Jew. That is religious people. Religious people who try to live a good life. See themselves as superior to the hidden on the basis of their good works and or their heritage and we'll get to that in the next couple weeks.

But this morning, back to verse 18. Paul says in verse 18, for the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who hold the truth or suppress the truth in unrighteousness. The general charge against fallen humanity we find here in verse 18 that is God is just in his anger toward men who have turned from the true God revealed unto them have suppressed the truth and have chosen instead a path of willful rebellion. Isaiah fifty three six, all all we like sheep have gone astray and the Lord hath laid on him that is Jesus the iniquity of us all but all we like sheep have gone astray. Some further than others but yet all that matters in regards to heaven and righteousness that we are unrighteous.

We have all gone astray. And you can be sure that God is not going to just let it go. He, a holy and just God, will respond to the rebellion of his creation. We read that here in Ephesians five, five, and six. For this you know that no hormoner nor unclean person nor covetous man who is an idolater hath any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God.

Let no man deceive you with vain words for because of these things cometh the wrath of God upon the children of disobedience. Is God, will God's wrath come upon the children of disobedience? The answer to that is yes. We can be assured of it. We live in a world today that is ignoring that, just pretending that God does not exist, that his wrath is not coming but it is.

Sadly, humanity in general and individuals specifically continue despite God's intervention again and again and again throughout history. They still choose the wrong path. They choose the path of disobedience. In the Garden of Eden. After the Garden of Eden, remember Cain?

Before the flood, read a verse in a few minutes about that, how bad that was. After the flood. Started again with Noah and his family. Few generations later, Tower Of Babel. Man once again rebelling against God.

In Abraham's day, a few generations later, Abraham lived among idolaters. The Canaanites. God gave them five hundred years from Abraham to Joshua to turn but they only got more vile. The Israelites, God's chosen people, delivered from slavery in Egypt, brought miraculously into the land. And yet generations later, they turned from God and God had to scatter them throughout the world.

The Jews of Jesus' day, he came unto his own and his own received him not. Though they had bought into the religion of self righteousness. After the ascension of Christ, we have the beginnings of the early church and things seem to be going well. Few generations, a few hundred years pass and we get to the dark ages in Romanism. Overwhelms most of the world.

After the reformation, I mean, the reformation back there with Martin Luther and all of them and God again intervenes but then it's not long and rationalism takes the place of reformation. Then, there is the good old United States Of America. People that founded our country, many of them were Christians. Our country was founded largely on Christian principles. God was honored.

In our country. God sent great revivals to our country. And yet, we see the same thing in our society as we see in all of these others. The problem, man is sinful. And when it goes unchecked, it goes very badly.

In verses 19 through 20, if you look at verses 19 through 20, we see, because that which may be known of God is manifest in them. For God has showed it unto them for the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made even his eternal power and godhead so that they are without, what's the next word? Excuse. They are without excuse. Says who?

Says God. Not says me, says God. God's wrath against the ungodly, those who refuse, God, the worship and reverence he is due and the unrighteous who refuse to submit to his rule and his laws. God's wrath is justified because they willfully choose to ignore the truth of God. It is a choice man has made.

A willful path of rebellion he has charted Beginning with that first sin in the garden. God declares that he has revealed himself both in creation and in the conscience of man. So that he is without excuse. The conscience, the moral, spiritual, and reasoning aspects of man screams that there is an intelligent, a moral, and a spiritual being who gave life to us because we are intelligent, moral, and spiritual beings. We are not more than just material is evident and manifest where?

Within the heart of man. Furthermore, the beauty and order, the complexity and power we see in nature must reflect the beauty and the order and the complexity and the power of its creator and designer. How sad that people can study the human body and study outer space and study this world in which God created and somehow not see him in it. What man has achieved with our intellect does not begin to compare but God has achieved. We can't even create life of any kind.

Only God can do that. And yet people deny him. They are without what? Excuse. The excuse I did not know is not justified and is impermissible in God's courtroom.

Few more verses. And saying, sirs, what? Why do you these things? We also are men of like passions with you and preach unto you that you should turn from these vanities unto the living God which made heaven and earth and the sea and all things that are therein. Who in times past suffered all nations to walk in their own ways.

Nevertheless, he left not himself without witness. In that, he did good and gave us rain from heaven and fruitful seasons, filling our hearts with food and gladness. God said, I did not leave myself without what? Witness. There is both the general revelation of the world in which we live that God says, you should see me and the specific general revelation that God has given us in his word.

Psalm 19 and verse one, the heavens declare the glory of God. The firmament showeth his handiwork. Day unto day, utters speech. Night unto night showeth knowledge. There is no speech nor language where their voice is not heard.

For those who do not speak, the language that our Bible is translated into or the language that it was written in. God says, I have written my love in the stars. My power and my majesty and for those who wish to find me, those who seek me will indeed find me. The heavens declare the glory of God. Romans two fifteen, if you'll turn over just one page, Romans two fifteen.

We'll start in verse 14 actually. Verse 14 of Romans two, for when the Gentiles, which have not the law, do by nature the things contained in the law, these having not the law are law unto themselves, which show the work of the law written in their what? In their hearts. Their conscience also bearing what? Witness.

Witness to who? Witness to God and their thoughts, the meanwhile accusing or else excusing one another. Isn't it something if children gather in a line to go to the water fountain at five years old and somebody cuts in front of them, they get upset and they say that's wrong, you cut in line. How do they know that? Well, because somebody told them it was wrong.

No, not necessarily. Somebody did that may not have been a human but God has given us a moral conscience that says, well, that's wrong. You can't do that. Well, where did that come from? That came from who?

That came from God. That came from God. This leads us to the second indictment. The first is inexcusable ignorance. The second indictment we find in verse 21 is inexplicable ingratitude.

In gratitude. Look if you would verse 21. Because that when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful. They became vain in their imaginations and their foolish heart was darkened. I have to say this, after every time we read in the scriptures, that long list I gave in the garden, after the garden, before the flood, after the flood, all these different cases.

God came down and he intervened in mankind. He showed himself mighty. He did mighty works among them. In some cases like Noah's day, he judged the world and started back over with eight people, eight people that knew him and yet few generations later, what does man do? He were spirals down.

They knew God but they weren't what? They weren't thankful. They turned away from him. When they knew God, they failed to glorify him. That is honor and acknowledge him.

To do what God told Moses told the people in Deuteronomy six. He said, make sure that you teach these laws to your what? Your children and your children's children because if you don't, there's going to come a day when they're going to turn from God and they will not know him anymore and indeed, we see that even as soon as the book of Judges. When they knew God, they failed to glorify him. They failed to be grateful and so became vain, foolish, futile in their thinking, and darkened their foolish hearts.

As they chose to put God out of their minds, they began to lose their minds. It is God that gave us this mind and it is the fear of the Lord. That guides this mind. Without it, the mind loses its way. Proverbs one seven, the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge but fools despise wisdom and instruction.

Their reasoning became muddled. Their heart became cold. Their spiritual eyes darkened so that they could no longer sense God in their heart and see God in his creation. Do we not see that around us today in society? How they do not seem to sense God in their heart?

Even though he is let every man, lighted every man that came into the world. John one and they failed to see him in creation. Somehow, they can look at the same stars and the same grass and trees and and they don't see him there anymore because they chose to put him out of their their mind. Thus, spiritual blindness sets in on godless societies like ours and individuals. When as they grow older, they also grow colder.

And further from God. Swallowing the pills of paganism. Humanism, mysticism, agnosticism, atheism, as substitutes for submission and fellowship with their creator. And God. Man has a void in his life and his heart that must be filled.

It will be filled with something. But only Jesus Christ can truly fill it. But man will try to fill it with anything. And if he rejects the truth, well, then he must fill it with a what? He must fill it with a lie because that is all he has.

And so man and mankind having turned from God, believes a lie. When that lie leads to perdition, to lawlessness, to immorality, because it doesn't fulfill the void that is in man's heart and so he turns to sin and pleasure and lust to do that which it does not either but what it does lead to is the judgment of who? It leads to the judgment of God and God saw the wickedness of man was great in the earth that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. It repented the Lord that he had made man on the earth and it grieved him at his heart and the Lord said, I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth and so he did all but Noah and his family. And here's the thing, I I I think about, well, what if what if God was visible?

What if they could see him? What if they could you know, well, I think about it for a minute. They were kicked out of the what? Garden Of Eden and God put a cherubim with a flaming what? Sword to guard the way.

Now, I expect that that was destroyed with the flood like everything else was. But it could it be that there was still that place and still that angel with that flaming sword guarding the way to the tree of life for two thousand years and yet man turned away from God. That is how sinful we are. Second Kings 17, Israel, not withstanding, they would not hear but harden their necks. Like to the neck of their fathers.

They did not believe in the Lord their God and they rejected his statutes and his covenant that he had made with their fathers and his testimonies which he testified against them and they followed vanity and became vain and went after the hidden that were round about them concerning whom the Lord had charged them. They should not do like them. In Israel spiraled downward. Israel who God delivered from Egypt and God fed in the wilderness with manna. Israel that was led by a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night.

Israel that God that that came in and conquered Jericho or or God saw God conquer Jericho was the walls fell down and as God held the sun in the sky so they could win a battle and it goes on and on and on and yet, few generations later, here we go. Inexplicable ingratitude. Number three, idiotic idolatry. Verse 22, verse 22. Professing themselves to be wise, they became what?

Fools. What do fools do? Well, they change the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like corruptible man into birds and the four footed beast and creeping things. Idols. For God also gave them up to uncleanness to the lust of their own hearts to dishonor their own bodies between themselves.

Who changed the truth of God into a lie and worship and serve the creature more than the creator who is blessed forever. Amen. The next we see is idiotic idolatry. Professing themselves, asserting themselves to be more intelligent, more evolved than those before them who put their faith in God. They chose instead to be fools.

What's the definition of a fool? There it is. The fool has said in his heart there is no god. The fool in his heart has said, no. No god.

There is no god. I have no interest in God. And that same fool will look for other gods to take the place of the true one And so is the case with humanity. Willfully ignorant, unthankful, and now idolatrous. Rejecting the authority and wisdom of God leaves men into all sorts of wild and unsubstantiated foolish theories.

What's the most famous one of the last century? It's called evolution. It is a unsubstantiated, wild, and foolish theory is what it is. They are led into all sorts of these things like evolution to embrace substitutes, to worship from man's own intellect, to nature, to statues and idols, to rocks and gems, to gods and goddesses, to ancestors and demons, to dictators and false saviors, and the list goes on and on and you will find all of those false gods worship in the world in which we live today. A matter of fact, you could find all of those false gods worshiped in The United States Of America today.

More easily sometime than you can find someone who is truly worshiping the God of heaven and Jesus Christ. The truth of God is not only superior to the lie but simpler and easier to believe. Well, then, why do people reject it? Because Satan's lies are more appealing, more appealing to the vanity and pride of fallen man which wants no part of something called repentance. Or submission.

To his or her creator and so they end up bowing the knee to rocks and gems and imaginary gods and goddesses and cars and homes and dollars. And good luck charms to other men but not to God. God is clear. While man chooses what he will do with God in his life and heart, God has already decreed how he will deal with man who chooses false gods in the place of the true one. Look, if you would in Exodus chapter 20 or just listen, I, listen, I have just a few verses to read verse three.

God says, thou shalt have no other gods before me. Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above or that is in earth beneath or that is in the water under the earth. Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them nor serve them for I, the Lord thy God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me, and showing mercy on the thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments. The choices ours, God has every right to be jealous of what he has created for his glory and fellowship and indignant against them. When men choose to give his rightful glory and allegiance and love to another.

God is clear. He will judge. Vengeance is mine. I will repay. Saith the Lord.

In John three eighteen, Jesus makes it clear. He that believeth on him, that is the son of God, hath life. He that believeth not, not have life. He that believeth on him is not condemned. But he that believeth not is what?

Condemned already. Because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten. Son of God. God has made his intentions, his will, very clear. The question is, what will man do with God?

So, for those who turn their backs on God, for those who chose idols, false gods over the true one, God surrendered them to the vile lust of their own sinful nature which they chose. Resulting in unbelievably dishonorable acts of indecency. Perpetuated against their own bodies and one another. Vile, immoral acts. Who chose to exchange the truth of God for a lie that we can become our own gods.

Chart our own path without consequence. Who bought in to the lie of Satan, you shall not surely die. But die, you will. In the squalor, of your sin. A squalor that you will live in.

In pain and separation from God for all eternity. That is where sin leads. Without who? Without God. When man chooses to exchange the true God for a false God.

Indictment number five, unrestrained immorality. Look if you would in verse 26, back to Romans one twenty six. For this cause, God gave them up to vile affections, For even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature and likewise also men leaving the natural use of the woman burning their lust one toward another. Men with men working that which is unseemly, receiving in themselves that recompense of their error which was meet or fitting. Unrestrained immorality.

So, God let them have what they wanted. To wallow in the mud of all and every kind of sexual perversion denying the natural order in creation and morality ordained by our creator and God to their own destruction. Adultery, pre and extramarital sex, pornography, homosexual and bisexual activities, transgenderism nonsense, incest, rape. Well, at least rape is still considered wrong, Although it happens far more in America than we would want to admit. But it is all wrong.

It is all against the natural order created by who? By God. It is all contrary to his established morality and the inclusion embrace of it in polite society is undoubtedly a sign that such a society and individuals which make it up have abandoned who? Have abandoned God altogether to their own destruction. Remember Sodom?

Remember Sodom? What were they doing? They were trying to commit. They were requesting of Lot to commit. Unimaginable sexual perverse acts on his visitors.

And God destroyed them. Utterly destroyed them. Such utterly immoral and mindless behavior results in all sorts of disease and disaster. In the lives of those who practice it, destruction of their bodies, souls, families, societies. And sadly, we, our society, has arrived.

Fornication, adultery, homosexuality, same sex marriage, transgenderism, it is all evidence of a society that has replaced the true God of heaven with false gods. All evidence of a society that has been turned over to a what? A reprobate mind to do those things which are not convenient, not sensible, against order, against God's order. These things are permitted and practiced by those in authority from politicians to doctors. Doctors who try to change people from one sex to another.

Politicians who encourage this kind of behavior and practice it. It is embraced and applauded by our entertainers and athletes. As though it is some wonderful thing that we are now free to do. Even among many other people with which we live and communicate daily including some who call themselves Christians, it is accepted but is it accepted by God? What does the Bible say?

Mark ten six through nine. But from the beginning of creation, God made them male and female. What did that say? But from the beginning of creation, God made them what? Male and female.

How many sexes? How many genders? Two. Two. That's the way God made man.

Two sexes, two genders, unalterable. For this God cause shall a man leave his father and mother shall cleave to his wife and they twain shall be one flesh so then they are no more twain or two but one flesh but therefore God hath joined together let no man put us under for this call shall a man leave his father and mother and cleave to his what's that word? Wife. That's in the Greek. You know what it means?

Woman. Not male. Not man. But woman. It is a very specific word.

First Corinthians six nine and ten, know you not the unrighteous shall not inherit. I'm I'm leaving you behind here. Know you not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God. Be not deceived neither fornicators nor idolaters nor adulterers nor effeminate nor abusers of themselves with mankind. Those last two mean homosexuals and transgenders nor thieves nor covetous nor drunkards nor revilers nor extortioners shall inherit the kingdom of God.

Now, the world may not recognize what sin is in the eyes of man's creator but we must. We must continue to be the salt and light no matter how thick the darkness, how unsavory the society, or how stout the resistance. If we're not salt and light in this world, who's going to be? No one. So we must.

We must and we at Missouri Avenue Baptist Church will continue to stand upon the word of God and the laws established by nature's God. Thus, in June's business meeting in a few couple weeks, as announced in our last regular business meeting, we will once again affirm our adherence to God's standards of decency and morality by voting on an amendment to our statement of faith and our church bylaws concerning these specific issues. Not that our beliefs or convictions have changed. They haven't. But unfortunately, the world around us has changed.

And we need to declare them in such a manners to make our beliefs clearly known to those entering the membership of our church and to the unsaved world that we will not bend and compromise in this regard. Before we can vote on that in the next business meeting, according to our constitution, I have to read the amendments in a service on Sunday morning. So I will read them now. There's section fourteen and fifteen in our bylaws, and here is the amended version. Human sexuality and gender identity.

We believe God created mankind as two distinct gender sexes, male and female, complementary to one another and equally in the image of God. We therefore reject any teaching which asserts there to be more than those two God ordained genders. Furthermore, we also reject any teaching which asserts that one can actually and just ly choose to identify as, affirm, confirm, or modify by any means one's sexual, one's gender contrary to one's biological sex at birth. We believe that God has commanded that no intimate sexual activity should be engaged in outside of marriage between a man and a woman. We believe that any form of homosexuality, lesbianism, bisexuality, bestiality, incest, fornication, adultery, and pornography are sinful perversions of God's gift of sex.

And then section 15, marriage and divorce. Section 15, a minute to say this. We believe that God clearly intends the marriage covenant to be binding on both husband and wife until one of the spouses dies. We also assert that God does therefore hate divorce. As he so declares in Malachi, although permitting it for a very few and irreparable reasons.

Furthermore, we assert that same sex marriage is contrary to the right and biblical definition of marriage as defined by its creator for reasons specified in section 14 above. Both of these are followed by a list of references and tonight, this will be posted on the bulletin board and you can read it for yourself. But this is not man's law. This is who law? Whose law?

This is God's law. This is God's order. Why is it do we have to make a statement like this? Because man is rebelling against the natural order of God. It is the it is the way things go when man turns his back on who?

God and it's happened over and over and over and over again and it's happening here. It should not catch us by surprise but it requires us who are salt and light that we take a what? That we take a stand, that we do not compromise, and that we be that salt and light. Concluding in verse 28, of chapter one. And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to reprobate mind to do those things which are not convenient.

Being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetous, maliciousness, full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity, whisperers, backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud boasters, inventors of all evil things, disobedient to parents without understanding, covenant breakers, without natural affection, implacable, and merciful, who knowing the judgment of God that they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same. But have pleasure in them that do them. The final indictment, enthusiastic self destruction. That's what we see over and over again. That's where this leads.

Therefore, having determined to wipe God from their minds and society, all absolutes, God gives them over or surrenders them to a worthless garbage mind, a mind incapable of recognizing right from wrong or truth from error. You say, why is it that people can't understand that abortion's wrong? How can you not understand that abortion is murder? But yet half our country doesn't see it. This is why.

This is why. We must stand all that stronger. We must shed the light So that having thrown off God's authority and refused the image of God, they which were created choose instead to be like what? What are according to evolution, what are we? We're animals.

And that's where this devolves to. Not evolves, but devolves. While knowing deep within the punishment, for their choice continue to run headlong to the path of ruin, happy to drag others along with them. Ask you question, is there a remedy? Is there way of escape?

Yes, there is. Even for these, yes, there is. Many of the people in Rome before they came to Christ could have been included in this group of people. Some of them which Paul called saints were once called hidden. Is there hope?

Oh, yes, there is. I read from first Corinthians six a few minutes ago and I'm almost done. Hold with me just a little bit longer. I'll read verse nine and ten again but I want us to notice verse 11. No one, know you not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God.

Be not deceived neither fornicators nor idolaters nor adulterers nor feminine nor abusers of themselves with mankind nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God. How sad it would be if that's where it ended? But it doesn't end there. Verse 11 says, and such were some of you. But you are washed, but you are sanctified, but you are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the spirit of our God.

Is there a remedy? Yes. The remedy is who? Jesus Christ and the gospel that Paul preached. Repentance and faith in Jesus are man's only chance.

But as long as you draw breath, there is still a way of escape. Well, if you will open your eyes before it is too late and avoid the eternal disaster that awaits. For God is not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance. Will you come to Christ with a repentant heart? Will you choose by his grace a different course?

Will you receive the gospel? Have you? Will you Christian take a stand? Will you choose to speak up with your actions and your words? And be the salt and light you are called to be.

Is there a sin in your life which does not belong in the life of a child of God? From which you reign to repent, to be better salt, and light. Than you are. Yes, this message, these words were written about the hidden who know not God and how they got to be that way. But it is written for our admonition also that we might recognize who we are in Christ Jesus and what we've been saved from and what the world around us so desperately needs.

For if the Corinthians can be saved and the Romans can be saved, Americans can be saved. But they need the gospel. For Jesus is the only one who can rescue them. From this very sad pattern. Let's pray.

Dear God, thank you Lord. For this day and this opportunity you've given us to preach your word, to stand clearly upon it, Lord, we have many neighbors, coworkers, acquaintances maybe today that are headed down this path. Lord, you can save them if they will hear the gospel. Our righteousness and theirs are insufficient. Yours is sufficient.

We thank you for the righteousness of Jesus Christ in which we who know the savior have been robed. We pray for those who are yet have yet to make that decision. Who are on the Broadway that leads to destruction, that you would rescue them. For our friends, our family, and that we would be the salt and light in their life that they need. To see Jesus, to see what a difference you make, and such were some of us but we have been sanctified.

We have been cleansed in Jesus Christ. Thank you, father. Forgive us of our sin. Help us to shine brighter. In Jesus name, we pray.

Amen.