Heaven, the Coming Kingdom, and the New Jerusalem

How you guys doing this morning? Good. How are you? Good. Good.

Go ahead and open your Bible to Revelation chapter 21 if you could and you'll have to forgive me. I'm on the tail end of a cold right now. So, if I start coughing, I'll try to mute the mic first. Alright, let's stand up just in reverence of God's word so that we can read this and let's read this together starting at verse one and we'll go to verse four and I saw a new heaven and a new earth for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away and there was no more sea. Come on guys, read.

Oh, I guess not all of you are there. So, I'll wait a second. Okay, let's start over. And I saw a new heaven and a new earth for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away and there was no more sea and I saw John, the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband, and I heard a great voice out of heaven, saying, behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them and they shall be his people and God himself shall be with him them and be their God and God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain, for the former things are passed away. Amen.

Alright, let's go for a word of prayer. Heavenly father, we thank you for the ability to be here today and thank you for the ability to worship you and have a complete Bible where we can read the deep truths that we as humans desire to hear and we just pray Lord that you would give us some enlightenment this morning on some encouragement on heaven, on the new Jerusalem and thank you for allowing the pastor to trust me with delivering the message this morning. I am nothing Lord. You are everything and I just ask that you would please just use me, use me to encourage someone today, use me to to draw someone closer to you today and and use me to challenge someone today. It's all for your glory Lord and we just ask that you'd please put a blessing on our study ahead of us.

In Jesus name, amen. You guys can be seated. So, I had this message prepared for Sunday school last week. Unfortunately, I I became sick the day that we were supposed to do that. So, my apologies but something out of my control.

And essentially, the message is entitled the the third heaven, the coming kingdom, and the new Jerusalem and we may not go the full time today because this is supposed to be a shorter message for Sunday morning Sunday school but you know, if we get out of here a little bit early, I'm sure you guys won't complain. So, so essentially, you know, the first thing I want to talk about, if you kind of take it, when I was preparing this message, it was actually an encouragement for me because you know, the Bible is a book of reminders and for us to learn about heaven and to to learn about the coming kingdom and and new Jerusalem is incredible. When you when you really take a deep study into it and really just kind of look at all the verses that outline what it'll be and and we're not going to go through all of them today but we'll hit some of em. You know, essentially, when you look at the Bible as a whole in scripture as a whole, there is three different heavens that the Bible talks about and the first one is our immediate atmosphere all around us, okay?

So, that would be the first heaven and that's outlined in James chapter five verse 18 and he prayed again and the heaven gave rain and the earth brought forth her fruit, okay? So, that's the first heaven. Second heaven would be outer space, the sun, moon, and stars. Matthew twenty four twenty nine, immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened, the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken. So, that would be the second heaven and the third heaven is the home of God.

And Paul talks about this. If you guys would go ahead and turn your Bibles to second Corinthians chapter 12. Give you a minute to get there. We'll start at verse one, and we'll go to verse four. It is not expedient for me doubtless to glory.

I will come to visions and revelations of the Lord. I knew a man in Christ above fourteen years ago, whether in the body, I cannot tell or whether out of the body, I cannot tell, God knoweth. Such in one caught up in the third heaven. And I knew such a man whether in the body or out of the body, I cannot tell God knoweth. How that he was caught up into paradise and heard unspeakable words which is not lawful for a man to utter.

So, the third heaven essentially is a completely different realm than here. Perhaps, a different dimension essentially and the reason we know that is because in verse two and verse three, Paul even repeats himself twice that he didn't know if he was in his body or out of his body. You know, and essentially, he was prohibited from from speaking about his experience essentially And so the Bible does give us some clues about heaven and about New Jerusalem, which we're going to get to in a minute here. But John one eighteen essentially says that that no man hath seen God essentially. If we did have the ability to see God in our present sinful bodies, we would essentially die.

We would burn up and and where we read that in scriptures in Exodus 33 verse 20 and he said, thou canst not see my face for there shall no man see me and live. So, it's clear that essentially, you know, second Corinthians chapter five verse eight talks about when we're absent from the body, we're present from with the Lord, right? So, essentially, we can therefore make a conclusion that when we die, we go to the third heaven, okay? It's a dwelling place where God and his angels, Old Testament, New Testament saints are there in spirit where we will be waiting the new heaven and the new earth to dwell with our glorified bodies. What will the third heaven be like?

Well, fellowship with God, the fellowship that with God that we have here on Earth that many of you have experienced or are experiencing on a daily basis, hopefully. The joy and satisfaction that we get from serving him, I'd imagine it'd be pretty similar if not much better in heaven. Amen? Ever ever wish you could just be around your Christian brothers and sisters all the time? Well, you will in heaven.

Streets of gold, incomprehensible beauty. The scripture says in, first Corinthians two nine, eye hath not seen nor ear hath heard, neither have entered into the heart into the heart of man the things with God which God hath prepared for them that love him. So, essentially, we have, you know, we are going to be really shocked essentially when we pass into eternity. Those that know Christ. The Bible gives us some clues, not many.

But we're going to go into some pretty good detail about New Jerusalem here in a second. Turn your Bibles if you would to John chapter 14. We'll take a look at what Jesus had to say about describing heaven. Okay. In my father's house are many mansions.

If it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you unto myself that where you I am, there you may be also. So, essentially, the Lord is is preparing a place for us right now And, eventually, we will inhabit a new heaven and a new earth. And in that new heaven and new earth, there will be a new Jerusalem and everyone will have a glorified body in New Jerusalem.

And the reason why we know this and now some people say, well, what it what what is this new glorified body and and how is it different than my body? Well, we're going to look that up. Go ahead and turn if you would to first Corinthians chapter 15. I'm having you guys turn a few different places this morning but this is important. First Corinthians fifteen forty two.

We'll start at verse 42. Okay, we're going to go to verse 53. So also is the resurrection of the dead. It is sown in corruption. It is raised in incorruption.

It is sown in dishonor. It is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness. It is raised in power. It is sown in natural body.

It is raised a spiritual body. There is a natural body and there is a spiritual body. And so it is written, the first man Adam was made a living soul. The last Adam was made a quickening spirit. And that last Adam essentially is is Jesus Christ.

That's the the reference there. How be it that was not first which is spiritual but that which is natural and afterward that which is spiritual. The first man is of the earth, earthly. The second man is the Lord from heaven. As is the earthy, such are they also that are earthy.

And as it is heavenly, such are they also that is heavenly. And as we have borne the image of the earthly, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly. Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, neither doth corruption inherit incorruption. Behold, I show you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed in the moment in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump, for the trumpet shall sound, and the denning shall be raised incorruptible, and shall be changed.

For this corruptible must put on incorruptible, this mortal must put on immortality. So with that being said, it's clear from this passage, you know, our earthly sinful bodies were perishable, weak, dishonorable, corrupted, right? Glorified bodies will be imperishable, honorable, powerful. They will no longer be fleshly and carnal. They will be spiritual bodies, no longer focused on natural senses but in union with the Holy Spirit.

They will be pure and undefiled by sin, covered with white garments. The body the bodies we inherit will be more like what God had originally had made us to be with Adam and Eve in the Garden Of Eden before the fall rather than what we abide in through the infirmity and weakness of our sinful flesh. Amen? Jesus says there are essentially rewards in heaven. Not only moving on here next topic.

Jesus says there are rewards in heaven but not only different degrees of rewards based on the things that you've done here on Earth. They're service for the Lord essentially and just so everyone's clear on this, you know, we talked a couple weeks ago in my Sunday school class on eternal security. You're not saved by your good works. If you think you're getting to heaven because you do good things, it's not going to happen. The only way that you're able to get into heaven is by trusting Christ as your savior, repenting your sin, and confessing him as Lord and believing that he rose on the third day.

That's your that's your path to heaven and surrendering your life to him essentially. So, you know, because essentially, there's nothing good that we can do to to earn that. Jesus has already done all the work for us on the cross. So, with that being said, once we do become Christians, the Lord asks that we do service for him. You know, it's our reasonable thing to do.

The Bible says, right? And essentially, the Bible talks about different rewards that Jesus will bless to us once we do get to heaven based on the service that we've done here on Earth. Essentially, you know, in a in a ninety nineteen ninety one Gallup poll, I thought this was really interesting, showed that seventy eight percent of Americans expect to go to heaven when they die. However, many of them hardly ever pray, read the Bible, or attend church. They admit that they live to please themselves instead of God.

Now I wonder why these people would even want to go to heaven in the first place. If they have no desire to serve and worship God here on Earth, why would things change essentially once they pass into eternity? You know? Matthew five eleven through 12, it says, you don't have to turn there, but it says, blessed are ye when men shall revile you, persecute persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely for my sake. Rejoice and be exceeding glad For your, for great is your reward in heaven.

For so persecuted they the prophets which were before you. So, essentially, you know, our flesh, when we have a situation where we've got a family member or a friend or even a random person that mocks us, you know, makes fun of us because of our faith, our flesh, the immediate what's the immediate reaction? It's like, it hurts, you know, and and what that is is that's our pride, essentially. That's our pride telling us, you know, hey, you know, you look weird, you look kind of strange now. Well, guess what?

None of that stuff's going to matter once once we pass into eternity, okay? And you know, Christ says right here, you're blessed. When when you get persecuted for Christ's sake, look at that as an honor. Look at that as like a good thing and it's incredible, you know, to be able to have that mindset because when you when you do have that mindset and you can kinda just tell your mind that when something like that happens, it's not that big of a deal anymore. You know, then you're just like, whatever.

I'll pray for that person. I I really feel bad for them that they're on the the road to hell. You know? Matthew six nineteen, lay up not for yourselves treasures upon earth where moth and rust doth corrupt and where thieves break through and steal but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt and where thieves do not break through nor steal. For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.

So, with this being said, we live in America, essentially. And when you look at the, quote, unquote, American dream, what is it? Right? It's all about the goal of the goal of this life is to get as many toys. He who has the most toys wins, right, before you die.

And Jesus, what he's saying right here is is is a direct contrary to that. He's saying, listen, you know, materialistic things, you can you can put your focus on that if you want, but just to let you know that this stuff is gonna all go up in smoke one day, guys. You know, this whole Earth is just gonna explode. Some people ask me, do you believe in the big bang? I say, yeah, believe in the big bang.

In the book of Revelation, it talks about how the old Earth explodes with a big bang. And everything has passed away and there's there's a new heaven and a new earth. Amen. First Corinthians chapter three verse 11. For and these are all, you know, all these pass that I'm reading here, we can do sermons for days of on these but you know, we're just hitting them quickly just because we're we're doing an overall study here.

First Corinthians three chapter 11, if you would just turn there actually because we got a cup few verses to read in that. Okay. So verse 11 through 15. For other foundation can no man lay that is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Now if any man build upon this foundation gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble, Every man's work shall be made manifest for the day shall declare it because it shall be revealed by fire and the fire shall try every man's work of what sort it is.

If any man's work abide which he hath built there upon, he shall receive a reward and if any man's work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss but he himself shall be saved so as by fire. So, essentially, what the Bible is talking about here is the judgment seat of Christ where the believers in Jesus Christ will be judged for their works and this comes later on closer to the new heaven and new earth. Now, just to just to clarify, this is different than the great white throne judgment. The the great white throne judgment is the judgment of the unbelievers, okay? And the great the judgment seat of Christ.

This is for the believers and essentially, it says right here, it says, if any man's work abide which he had built there upon, he shall receive a reward and there is another verse that I didn't put in here that just actually came to my mind. It says something to the tune of if the house is built if the Lord built the house then it's not in vain. Something like that but essentially what that one is is saying is is saying pretty much the same thing. If you're going to do work for God then it's going to last for eternity. If you're going to do good works not for God then it's it's going to be burned up essentially and the things that you know ultimately when you kind of take a look step back and look at this you know what we must understand here is that the things of eternal value are only the things that are that will be rewarded and more importantly they're they're things that we should be doing on a regular basis and I think a lot of us struggle with this just because we can't see heaven yet.

So, what do we do? We do these things in faith. It requires faith to be able to do these things. Faith that God will see it but more importantly, faith that God will be glorified and you know, as far as I'm going to get into a second here. About oh, sorry.

Actually, I'll just I'll just wait until I get to that part. So, you know, as far as the things that have eternal value, leading a soul to Christ, discipling a new convert, tithing to ministry of churches, truly serving the Lord, visiting the sick, poor, widowed, sending a thank you card or or a birthday card to encourage someone and all these things will be tried by fire and survive and we'll have an eternal reward. First Corinthians ten thirty one, this is a verse that really is near and dear to me because it's something that we can all strive for but I don't think anybody has perfected and essentially what it says is whether therefore you eat or drink or whatsoever you do, do it all to the glory of God, okay? So, essentially, there's a practice that you can put in place when you're just, you know, walking around you know, and and doing things like, am I doing this for the glory of God? What is the ultimate goal of my of my of my life here?

You know, am I doing this to please my own flesh or am I doing this for the glory of God? You know, and not to say that you can't, you know, watch a football game every now and again. You know, that those type of things are I'm sure fine with the Lord as long as you don't make it an idol but you know, it's it's really important that we just understand here that you know, if if it was God's main like if if if God's and pastor talks about this all the time, if God's will for us was to just bring us to heaven, what would happen? We would get saved and we would instantly die and go to heaven but that's not his will for us. His will for us is to serve him while we're still here on this Earth, okay?

You know, Jesus also talks about other rewards such as ruling over cities in Luke 19 and and for the sake of time, we won't go there but it's it's in reference to Revelation chapter 20 where it talks about us ruling and reigning with Christ for eternity. You know, why is this important? Why why did the Lord feel the need to put this in scripture? Well, for one thing, it's human nature to want to be rewarded for the work we're doing, right? Imagine if you went to a job all day and they at the end of the day, they said, congratulations, George.

You don't get paid today. You know, the Lord wants to reward us too. You know, it's his pleasure to do so. Matthew seven chapter 11, Jesus says, if you then being evil know how to good give good gifts to your children, how much more shall your father which is in heaven give give good things to those that ask him. You know, it's crazy.

I think the world's perception of our God is so skewed. You know, people think of the God of the Bible and they think of like, you know, judgement. This is like all the things that they think about and of course, God is just and he has to put those warnings in the Bible for us for our own good but you read some of these passages and you're like, man, our God is perfect. He's incredible. You know, and it's crazy to me like how how often are we truly thinking about this stuff?

Just be honest with yourself. You know, are you is your mind constantly focused on things of the flesh, world things or you focused on God's promises essentially and and how can I serve the Lord today? You know, what can I do to to further the Lord's kingdom so that he can come back a little bit sooner? And this should be part of our drive, you know. We serve God because we love him and we have compassion for others, not solely because we want rewards, of course.

I want to make that clear. However, the rewards definitely help to know the work that we are doing is not gonna be in vain. Alright. So we're gonna turn back to Revelation chapter 21, and we're gonna read the whole whole chapter this time because I think this is you know, to read the whole thing in context, it's just a blessing. So, Revelation chapter 21.

Give you guys a second. It's all the way at the end of the Bible. Alright. Verse one, and I saw a new heaven and a new earth for the first heaven and first earth were passed away and there was no more sea and I, John, saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband and I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, behold, the tabernacle of God with is with men and he will dwell with, dwell with them and they shall be his people and God himself shall be with them and and be their God and God shall wipe away all their tears from their eyes and there shall be no more death neither sorrow nor crying nor shall there be any more pain for the former things are passed away. And he that sat upon the throne said, behold, I will make all things new, and he said unto me, write for these words are true and faithful, and he said unto me, it is done.

I am alpha and omega, the beginning and the end. I will give unto him that is the thirst of the fountain of the water of life freely. He that overcometh shall inherit all things and I will be his God and he shall be my people. But the fearful and unbelieving and the abominable and murderers and whoremongers and sorcerers and idolaters and all liars shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone which is the second death. And there came unto me one of the seven angels which had seven vials full of the seven last plagues and talked with me saying, come hither.

I will show thee the bride, the lamb's wife. And he carried me away in the spirit to a great and high mountain and showed me that great, city, the holy Jerusalem ascending out of heaven from God, having the glory of God and her light was like unto a stone most precious even like a jasper stone clears crystal and had a wall great and high and had 12 gates and at the gates 12 angels and names written thereon which are the names of the 12 tribes of the children of Israel. On the East three gates, on the North three gates, on the South three and on the West, three gates. And the wall of the city had 12 foundations, and in them, the names of the 12 apostles of the lamb. And he that talked with me had a golden reed to measure the city, and the gates thereof and the wall thereof.

And the city lieth four square and the length is as large as the breadth and he measured the city with the reed, 12,000 furlongs. The length and breadth and the height are also equal. And he measured the wall thereof, and an 144 cubits, according to the measure of a man, that is of the angel. And the building of the wall of it was jasper, and the city was pure gold like under clear glass. And the foundations of the wall of the city were garnished with all manner of precious stones.

The first foundation was jasper, the second sapphire, the third, chalcedony, the fourth, emerald, the fifth, sardonyx, the sixth, sardius, the seventh, chrysolite, the eighth, beryl, the ninth, the topaz, the tenth, the the eleventh, the and the twelfth in Amethyst. If anyone is a a gemologist in here, I apologize for butchering those. And the 12 gates were 12 pearls. Every every several gate was of one pearl and the street of the city was pure gold as it was transparent glass. And I saw no temple therein, and the Lord God Almighty, and the lamb are the temple of it.

And the city had no need of sun, neither of the moon to shine in it, for the glory of God did lighten it and the the lamb is the light thereof and this nations of them which are saved shall walk in the light of it and the kings of the earth do bring their glory and honor into it and the gates of it shall not, be shut all at all by day for there there shall be no night there and they shall bring the glory and honor of the nations into it and there shall be in no wise enter into it any things that defileth neither whatsoever worketh abomination or maketh a lie, but they which are written in the lamb's book of life. Alright. So, the first, there's a lot of things in this chapter, by the way, but the first thing I wanna talk about is the, the massive size of the city. Chapter 16, it says the city lieth four square, and the length is as large as the breadth. And he measured the city with the reed, 12,000 furlongs.

The length and the breadth and the height of it are equal. It's gotta be pretty big because, if you count all the saints and all the angels from, all the years that the Earth has been in existence. That's probably billions and billions of people. So, I'd imagine that this place has to be pretty big. However, there will be a new Earth as well.

So, you know, the new Jerusalem will be God's dwelling place but I'd imagine we'd probably be able to visit other places of the new earth as well. But essentially, you know, what is a furlong? You know, because it says that the the it says the height and the length of it and the the breadth of it are are equal. Right? So it's a lot of people would say it's a cube.

Some people say it's a it's a pyramid. But essentially, you know, if you were to take a furlong and look up on the Internet, which is what I did, see how long it is. It's 220 yards. So a little over two foot two football fields. And, you know, there's the length and the breadth and height is 12,000 furlongs.

So how many yards would that be? That would be two two million six hundred forty thousand and five yards. And how many miles would that be? That would be slightly over 1,500 miles. So just to give you an idea, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania to Denver, Colorado is about 1,450 miles.

Okay? So pretty big. And what's even more interesting is the the height is the same. Right? So it's gonna go 1,500 miles up in the air.

Right? Does anybody know nobody will probably know, but I'm gonna ask. Does anybody know how many miles you need to go up before you get into space? Okay. I figured you guys wouldn't know.

I looked it up. It's 62. So, 62 miles to get into space and this city is 1,500 miles tall. Okay? So, it's essentially 24 times the height of our current Earth's atmosphere, which is pretty amazing to me.

You know, can you imagine the skyscrapers that this city is gonna have? You know, it's gonna put New York City and Dubai to shame, that's for sure. And this is just a little taste. You know, we have one chapter really in all scripture that God has blessed us with to to see what what awaits the true believer. Believer.

You know, and it's just just not incredible to read. Amen? I think when we pass into the third heaven and eventually dwell in the new Jerusalem, we're gonna be it's gonna be pretty shocking to say the least but we're also gonna probably wish we had done more for the Lord. Because of his goodness and and we're gonna see essentially we're gonna hear a lot of stories in heaven about different ways that the the Lord touch people's hearts, different ways that the Lord use people. I don't know about you, but just browsing YouTube and and checking out testimonies are some of my favorite things to do, you know, to see how the Lord works in people's lives.

So, you know, just wrapping up here, you know, the ultimate question is, how do you how do you stay focused on your eternal home while you're living here on Earth? Well, read your Bible daily. Pray, serve God, follow him, do his commandments, obey him. Keep in mind your duties here on earth. Seek his will in every decision you make as little or as an insignificant as it may seem.

Love God, love your neighbor as yourself, have faith that one day you will be in heaven. If you are a true believer in Christ and live every day like it's your last. Why do I preach on this today? Because most of the time as Christians, we're so focused on the here and now. We got so many things going on with our lives that we just can't just take a step back and just realize this is just this world, you know, it's it's all gonna go up in flames one day.

It's all gonna disappear with the big bang. And it should be our motivation to help get as many people there with us as possible because the world, they have no idea what they're gonna miss out on. They really don't. It amazes me that a lot of atheists, they love nature. They they love the beauty of nature, and they're ignorant to the fact of who created everything.

Right? And some people may maybe listen to this and say, yeah, I'm I'm sure I'll go to heaven. I'm I'm I'm sure God will let me in. I'm I'm a good person. You may not be robbing banks.

You may not be murdering people but meanwhile, you still fornicate, watch our r rated movies, listen to filthy music. Don't kid yourself. If you have no desire to serve and worship God here on earth this earth in truth and spirit like the Bible suggests, what makes you think you're going to enjoy that heaven? You'll be bored. You know?

The Lord won't let you in but even if he did, you'd be because you won't be able to fulfill your fleshly desires anymore. You know, the things of heaven are pure, undefiled, and, it's incredible to know that we we have a home there. So, just kinda wrapping up here. James four fourteen, whereas you know not what time, shall be on tomorrow. For what is your life?

It is even a vapor that appeareth for a little time and then vanishes away. So our lives are are a little little tiny part of our eternal, you know, we're on we're on this earth for maybe eighty years if we're lucky. You know, we're in eternity for eternity, essentially. I'm gonna read this Spurgeon quote and then we'll close. Earthly gold is dull.

You cannot see it. If you could, you would see the tears of the oppressed and sometimes the blood of crushed down men in it. But the gold of heaven is good, and you could see into it as you could see into a sea of glass. I think I am walking there. I hardly know myself, and there I meet one and another of you whom I know here, and we go down together that down that Golden Street and look in that the many mansions whence came up, many to welcome us, and we thread our way to the center.

Center. There is no temple there, no tabernacle to worship there. But we go get into the center, and we stand upon the glassy sea to which all the streets seem to run. And as we look around, we see angels and elders bowing there before the throne of the the infinite majesty. And we are there themselves or we are there ourselves and we bow with them.

And when we lift up our eyes to that light, we sing. Unto him that loved us and washed us from our sins and his own blood and hath made us kings and priests unto God and his father. To him be glory and dominion forever and ever. So, I love I love Spurgeon the way that he articulates his words. I think that he's just truly a master at thinking of good descriptions of how to describe spiritual things and so I thought that quote was pretty good.

If you have a need, if you don't know that you're going to heaven, please talk to one of us after the service. We'd love to show you from the Bible how you can know. Other than that, I hope you guys, got a good, encouraging, and challenging message this morning and and let's go ahead and, close with a word of prayer. Heavenly father, we do thank you, for everything that you've done for us, Lord, and we thank you for our salvation, number one. We don't deserve to go to heaven, Lord.

We deserve hell for all of our wicked sins that we've done. You are just so full of mercy and grace, Lord and we're just so thankful and we just pray father that you would continue to to help us to keep our vision, keep allow our vision to be big bigger than our our circumstances and allow us to see those pearly white gates whenever we get persecuted or whenever we're, we have that that that split decision in our head to serve you or to back away because of fear. Lord, we can do so much better. We really can, including me. I'm not pointing fingers at anyone.

Lord, I I me personally, I'm I'm just as I'm I'm the king of the king of sinners Lord and I just pray father that you would just please continue to use all of us as a church and thank you for allowing us to be able to pray for our pastor. We do just pray specifically for Sandra today as well that you please bring healing to her body and help her to overcome this cancer and thank you that she's able to be here visiting with us and thank you for the other visitors here as well. Please put a blessing on the rest of our day in Jesus name. Amen.