Rejoice in the Lord

Community, Giving, and Call to Worship

Good morning! Let's try that again. Good morning! There it is. I want to welcome you to our Sunday gathering here at First Baptist Church of Artesia. Just a few announcements before we begin. First, you can find our other gatherings on the inside page of your bulletin. If you don't have one, you can find it in the back; it'll be your guide for the service this morning.

Specifically, one thing I want to point out to you: tonight in our evening service at 5:00 p.m., we will have Joe Lee—who is one of the three young Asian men—giving the devotional this Sunday night on Zechariah 8:23. So, if you'd like to hear a short little devotional from Zechariah 8:23 tonight, Joe Lee will be preaching. I'm really excited to hear him as he brings God's word for us this evening.

A couple of other announcements. First, if you'd like to give, you can do so online or in the offering plate in the back. I just want to read to you Matthew 6:19-21, which says:

“Don’t store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves don’t break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

— Matthew 6:19-21 (CSB)

Every time we give, we get to celebrate this truth—not that we're giving out of obligation or some kind of heartless duty, but because we actually believe that when we give, we get to invest in things that are eternal. So, if you're a visitor here this morning, we're glad that you're here. Don't feel any obligation to give; this is something that God calls Christians and members of churches to do. But for the rest of us, we have the joy of being able to participate and obey the Lord's command and leading in this passage.

Let me go ahead and pray and give thanks to God for our offering.

"Lord, we thank you for your graciousness towards us and for blessing us with every good and perfect gift. Lord, we pray that you would help us to be able to store our treasures in you, to trust you, and to be able to delight in you even as we continue to seek to serve you all our days. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen."

On May 22nd, we will be celebrating the life of Dorothea Lineback. That'll be here on Wednesday, May 22nd. The viewing will be at 11:00 a.m., and then the funeral service will be at 12:00 noon. We'd love to have you here for that.

One last announcement for us before we get started. I'd like to ask Brian and Charmaine Lee to leave the room. I'm going to kick them out real quick and potentially welcome them in.

So, Brian and Charmaine Lee have requested to be members of this church. They finished all six Church Matters classes I teach in the morning. I've sat down with them and done a membership interview with them. Brian currently works as a high school teacher; he teaches math. He's about to start again at another school, closer towards Santa Monica starting this fall. And Charmaine works as a media planner in Burbank.

They both profess to follow Jesus and were both baptized. Brian was baptized at Miracle Land Baptist Church—which is the church that my dad used to pastor—in 2011. And Charmaine was baptized at First Chinese Baptist Church of Los Angeles in 2015. Both of them know the gospel, they agree with our statement of faith, and they agree to commit to our church covenant, and they've come to be members here. So at this time, I'd like to ask the members of First Baptist Church to stand.

And now, let's pause for a moment for a moment of silence before we hear God call us to worship from Psalm 67.

May God be gracious to us and bless us; may he make his face shine upon usSelah so that your way may be known on earth, your salvation among all nations. Let the peoples praise you, God; let all the peoples praise you. Let the nations rejoice and shout for joy, for you judge the peoples with fairness and lead the nations on earth.Selah Let the peoples praise you, God, let all the peoples praise you. The earth has produced its harvest; God, our God, blesses us. God will bless us, and all the ends of the earth will fear him.

— Psalm 67:1-7 (CSB)

Let's go and praise this God who gives every blessing from heaven as we stand and sing hymn number two, "Come Thou Fount." Hymn number two, "Come Thou Fount." Let's stand and sing together.

Come, Thou Fount of every blessing, tune my heart to sing Thy grace; Streams of mercy, never ceasing, call for songs of loudest praise. Teach me some melodious sonnet, sung by flaming tongues above; Praise the mount! I'm fixed upon it, mount of God's redeeming love.

Jesus sought me when a stranger, wandering from the fold of God; He, to rescue me from danger, bought me with His precious blood. O to grace how great a debtor daily I'm constrained to be! Let Thy goodness, like a fetter, bind my wandering heart to Thee. Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it, prone to leave the God I love; Here's my heart, O take and seal it, seal it for Thy courts above.

I hear the Savior say, "Thy strength indeed is small; Child of weakness, watch and pray, find in Me thine all in all." Jesus paid it all, all to Him I owe; Sin had left a crimson stain, He washed it white as snow.

Lord, now indeed I find Thy power, and Thine alone, Can change the leper's spots and melt the heart of stone. Jesus paid it all, all to Him I owe; Sin had left a crimson stain, He washed it white as snow.

For nothing good have I whereby Thy grace to claim; I'll wash my garments white in the blood of Calvary's Lamb. Jesus paid it all, all to Him I owe; Sin had left a crimson stain, He washed it white as snow.

And when, before the throne, I stand in Him complete, "Jesus died my soul to save," my lips shall still repeat. Jesus paid it all, all to Him I owe; Sin had left a crimson stain, He washed it white as snow. O Jesus paid it all to Him. My sin had left a crimson stain, He washed it white as snow.

A Season of Holy Transition

Amen! Let us praise the Lord. God is good, and all the time... Amen!

As you're opening your Bibles to Philippians chapter 4, I have a couple of announcements for you. On June 2nd—I hope you write this date down, circle it—Sunday, June 2nd, is when we are going to have the official call for John Lee to be the senior pastor of First Baptist Church of Artesia. That means we'll be bringing him in here, and we will vote on whether you are accepting him as the new senior pastor of First Baptist Church of Artesia.

The week before, on May 26th, John's going to make himself available for a Q&A. He's been here about six or seven months, and so right after church in the back room, you can ask him any questions about what he believes, what he thinks, the direction of the church, and any of that stuff. That way, the following week you can make your vote based on all that you know. This is a little different, and then we will have the installation service on July 14th in the evening service at 5:00 p.m. There's going to be a lot of people here; you don't want to miss that.

Normally what happens when you call a pastor is the pastor has already left, and then you form a committee of people who have never called a pastor before. It takes them six or eight months to figure out what they're doing, and then they spend another six or eight months interviewing pastors, and then they call the pastor for the vote—and sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't work.

I've always felt that if the pastor knows he's going to be transitioning—as I am, I'm just transitioning; this is still going to be my home church, I will still be here, you will not get rid of me, I will be sitting right over there with my wife—but I've always felt that if the pastor cares about the congregation, knows the congregation, and cares about succession and what happens after he leaves, he should be part of that process.

And so what happened, for some of you that weren't here, back in August I got a call from John, and we sat down for lunch—just one of those things, we hook up every once in a while. I knew John when he was a teenager, before he went to seminary and stuff, and I always saw a call in his life. I always saw God at work in him.

So over the years, we had just touched base, seeing each other at a conference or something. And when we had lunch, I had just accepted the role at LABA to be their association director, and I figured, "Okay, within this next year I've got to start thinking about transitioning out, how we are going to do that."

So when John was available, it was a super no-brainer for me. It was just like we sat down and I said, "John, how can we make this work?" Because he has all the qualities, the aspects, and being young, he can take this church into the future.

So I went to our board of directors and I said, "Look, I know this is different than what we normally do, but let's give this a shot. Let's just see how this works." So John came in, preached a sermon, and everybody pretty much looked at me and said, "Okay, we're good."

Since then, we've just been handing over more and more things for John to do and to develop that role, and he has just hit it out of the park in every way. I just want you to know that process and how we're getting there.

So again: May 26th is the Q&A for John. If you have any questions, I'll be there too if you want to ask me any questions. It's basically so you can ask any hardball questions about theology, whatever it might be. And then on June 2nd will be the actual call where we vote, and the installation service will be on July 14th. Are we good? Okay, so you'll be hearing those dates in the next couple of weeks. If you have any other questions, you can talk to me afterward and I can clarify anything for you. But I'm super excited. I really am.

Scripture Reading: Philippians 4:4-9

Are you in Philippians? If you are, say "Amen!" Philippians chapter 4. I'll be reading verses 4 through 9.

Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! Let your graciousness be known to everyone. The Lord is near. Don’t worry about anything, but in everything, through prayer and petition with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Finally brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable—if there is any moral excellence and if there is anything praiseworthy—dwell on these things. Do what you have learned and received and heard from me, and seen in me, and the God of peace will be with you.

— Philippians 4:4-9 (CSB)

May the Lord add a blessing to the reading and hearing of his most precious and holy word. Let us pray.

"Lord God, we thank you for bringing us together this morning. Lord, open our eyes to see, our ears to hear, and our hearts to receive what it is that you have for us in this passage. Lord, we give you praise and honor and glory. In Jesus' name," and the church said, "Amen."

Rejoicing Beyond Our Circumstances

The title of our message is "Rejoice in the Lord." Last week we were in Philippians 3, and this is kind of the back end of that, connecting the two passages together. We were talking about reaching forward, where Paul says, "not that I've already made it or obtained it, but I keep reaching forward, I keep pressing in to the word of God." It was about spiritual growth and how we need to mature as Christians.

In Philippians 4:4, it begins: "Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice!" You see, sometimes the trials and pressures of life make it almost impossible to be happy. We always want to be happy, we always want to have a good day, but with the things we are faced with, there are just some days we are not going to be happy.

I'll give you an example. This week at our house, they are remodeling. They are sanding floors, all our furniture is in one room, I have no TV, I have no internet, I don't have my favorite chair—I have nothing. I am not happy! But it's not about me being happy; it's about me rejoicing in the Lord.

You see, sometimes we want to personalize Christianity and say, "Well, it's all about me. I need to be happy, I need to feel this way." But what does Paul say? "Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice!"

Paul doesn't tell us to be happy, but he encourages them to rejoice in the Lord because it is the Lord—it is God Almighty—who has planned everything. It is Him who has made a way, and it is Him who has a purpose for our lives. I don't have a purpose for your life. When I deliver a sermon, you're hearing my conversation with God; this is what He's saying to me, and I just get to share it.

Some would want to preach and hear a "happy gospel." I just want everybody to feel good when they walk out, and everybody's got a smiley face. Well, you know, the problem with that is that the trials and the problems of the world are still there.

Sometimes it's almost like the old ostrich story where our head is stuck in the ground trying to be happy, thinking all this calamity around us isn't affecting us. But it's still all around us. You can't ignore it, nor should you ignore it.

If we want to preach or hear a happy gospel, again, that makes it all about us. But when we rejoice in the Lord, it makes it all about Him. It's like praise and worship. We engage in praise and worship, but the Psalms say God is enthroned in the praises of His people.

So when we praise Him, we are enthroning Him, welcoming His presence. It's not about whether I like this song or I like that song; it's about the truth that we are coming together and singing for an audience of one. He receives our praise.

This is why we rejoice in Him and in Him alone, because He's the one that has everything figured out. We don't have it figured out, although sometimes we think we do, and then we want God to co-sign our plans. And after our plan goes south, then we go back to God and say, "Okay, God, I'll try you again." Then a little while later, we bring up our own plan again!

Christianity is about humility. It's about letting go and allowing God to work in our lives, helping us to become who it is that God has called us to be. So Paul says, "Rejoice where joy is eternal."

We rejoice no matter what we're going through because we have heaven locked up. If you believe that Jesus Christ is your Lord and Savior—which means you've acknowledged that you're a sinner, that sin has separated you from God, and there's nothing we can do to work our way back into right standing with God, but you acknowledge that sin, repent of that sin (meaning turning away from it), and believe that God so loved you He sent His only begotten Son to take those sins on the cross and take a death that you and I deserved—the result is eternity. The result is salvation. This is why we rejoice in the Lord. Our joy is eternal; it's in that eternal salvation. We go through trials on this earth, but our ultimate joy is where we are going. God is calling us into our future.

Cultivating a Gentle Spirit

Verse 5 says: "Let your Gentle Spirit be known to all men. The Lord is near." Now, there's a presupposition here. He says, "Let your Gentle Spirit be known." The presupposition is that we're supposed to have a gentle spirit based on what he's already said, what he's already taught them, and also based on the fruit of the Spirit. The presupposition is: this is who we are supposed to be as Christians.

It says, "Let your Gentle Spirit be known to all men," and then he says, "The Lord is near." In other words, in addition to joy, believers are to have gentleness, which is to be evident to all. That joy of knowing who God is, knowing there's a purpose, knowing there is a plan, and that gentleness in how we share the gospel, how we approach one another—that gentleness on the inside of us, which is a marker of the fruit of the Spirit, should be evident. People should see that in us and not anything else.

This gentleness and joy may not always be seen automatically, but the way we react to others—whether with gentleness or harshness—will be seen. You're walking down the street, and people don't know if you're gentle or harsh, but when you engage someone, the words that come out of your mouth and the way you deal with them demonstrate whether you are showing the fruit of the Spirit. Is there gentleness there? Is there joy on the inside of us, or are you a browbeater, just trying to bang somebody into submission because you want something out of them? Most of us have had bosses like that and couldn't wait to move on to another job.

Don't forget Galatians 5:22-23. I've referenced it a couple of times. This is the fruit of the Spirit. It's not "fruits," it's "fruit." In other words, all of this should be evident in a born-again believer because we are changed. The Spirit of the Lord is in us. It's not about which one you want to choose today—"Today I'll be gentle, tomorrow I'll be kind, but don't push my buttons because I still know how to sin." No, the fruit of the Spirit should be consistently evident. Galatians 5:22-23 says that the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.

I had a pastor one time say, "I'm going to explain self-control to you," and he said, "Control yourself." That's what self-control is. Based upon the fruit of the Spirit, the conversion, the change in you, and what Paul and Christ are saying across all scripture, we are supposed to be gentle, loving, and kind to one another. We should be able to say anything that needs to be said because people know our motives are not harsh or meant to hurt anyone.

These words should be part of our resume. Think about it for a second: when you look at your life and put together your resume, you might put down where you went to school, where you lived, and this and that. But is love on your resume? Is joy on your resume? What about peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and being able to control yourself in difficult times?

Then he says, "The Lord is near." Mostly, this refers to Christ's return. The first-century believers, and really basically every believer throughout the centuries, believed Christ would return in their lifetime. So God is near; yes, the Lord is near, and He can return at any time. But He's also right here, and sometimes we forget that. When you are born again, changed, and become a Christian, Christ is with you. Immanuel is here. That's why we should have that self-control; Christ is with us.

Overcoming Anxiety Through Prayer and Peace

Philippians 4:6 says: "Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God." This joy and gentleness, accompanied by an awareness of Christ's imminent return, should dispel any anxiety. In other words, we know how it's going to end. We know what we have. So for us to be anxious and worried is contradictory to what God has told us. He says, "I leave you with peace, don't be anxious. I have prepared a place for you; in my Father's house, there are many dwelling places."

This is where we're going. This is our hope, our trust, and what we believe as Christians and believers in Jesus Christ. A lot of times, you deal with people who don't know God or Christ, and they live a life of anxiety. When you want to share the gospel with someone, the best and probably the first question you should ask them is, "Where are you going when you die?" Because all anxiety, whether they admit it or not, surrounds that question of what's going to happen when that day comes.

We know. Therefore, our anxiety is gone. We might feel emotional about those who have left and the loss we experience, but that does not take away our joy and rejoicing in Almighty God because we know our loved one is with the Lord. So we rejoice in the Lord. But you see, it's in the knowing; if you don't know, you won't exhibit it.

Christianity sometimes needs a reboot. I worry personally about the attacks on the church, but I draw strength as I remember that the Lord is near. No matter what attacks go on in and around the church, or the shifts we see in Christian identity, the Lord is near. He's going to work all this out; He has the ultimate endgame. Sometimes we say, "Well, what about this happening and that going on?" God is Alpha and Omega—a definite beginning, a definite end, and He has everything in between planned out. All we do is follow His plan.

It's like a call to ministry. When we call someone to ministry, that person already knows God has called them, and then we look and see if that call is evident to the rest of us. That's what the call is all about: "I surrender to God, this is the path I'm on," and then at some point, there is a call, and you're brought into whatever ministry it might be.

Christianity is under attack—and I don't say this lightly—both inside and outside. There are things going on that are demonic in nature. They don't want us here; they want to get rid of us. Denominations are splitting, things are going south. In our own denomination, between the years 2020 and 2022, we lost over 3,000 churches. Why? Because they were not strong enough to survive the attacks and the pressures of what was going on.

Just the other day, there was a denomination that finalized a huge split after cracking for years. They finally declared that they will ordain anyone within the LGBTQ+ group for ministry. Many people have obviously left that. Where are they going? What's going to happen to those churches? I worry about them. I worry about the attacks on our denomination and Christianity as a whole.

How do we right this ship? How do we change this? Obviously, it all begins in prayer. See you at 5:00 p.m. tonight if you so desire!

This is not a call to a carefree life. Sometimes we think that, and it gets taught: "Come to Christ, and all your troubles are going to be taken care of." Well, yes, in an eternal sense, but we are still going to walk through a lost and dying world. We're still going to live in a cold, harsh world that does not want to accept Christ as Lord and Savior. We still walk through that.

It's a fallen world. The world is still fallen, but we are saved, regenerated, and our eternity is secure with Christ. It's not that we won't have any more problems; you're still going to have problems, but now the Lord is with you in those problems, working it all out.

So it's not a call to live a carefree life; rather, it's a call to care about others. When we rejoice in the Lord, and when we have this love, gentleness, and kindness, we exhibit that to others. This is who we are supposed to be. Someone shouldn't say, "Well, I don't want to go to church because I already feel bad enough about myself, and they're just going to make me feel worse." Let God be God and let the Holy Spirit convict. Let's be loving, inviting, and caring. Let's take an unbeliever, bring them to church, and take them out to lunch afterward. Let them come hear the gospel, and go preach the gospel to them. That is loving and caring.

You don't want them to miss what God has for them, so you have to care enough to preach the gospel. And the gospel is to go out into the world. What does "go" look like? Wherever your ministry is, whatever you're doing, it looks like that area. If it's in Downtown LA, it's going to look like that. If it's here, it'll look like this. If it's in Cambodia or Australia, it takes on different tones, but the message is—or should be—completely the same.

So Paul says to pray with thanksgiving to God because you know that God has already worked it out. God already has a plan. Your prayer shouldn't be, "Lord, conform to what I want," but "Lord, help me see what you are doing. Help me understand your way. Draw me into your word." Like Paul says: "not that I've made it or obtained it, but I keep pressing in." Show me who I need to be, what I need to do, what I need to let go of, and what I need to surrender to, because God is calling all of us to something bigger than what we can do on our own.

This is trust in action. When he says, "Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God," supplication means to humbly ask. Humility is based upon knowing who God is, letting go of everything, and saying, "God, I'm trusting in you. You're going to fix it, you're going to take care of it, it's yours." You are trusting God and already thanking Him for what He is going to do, knowing that even if it doesn't come the way you thought it would, God will work it out for the benefit of all.

In verse 7: "And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, will guard our hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus." We cannot fully comprehend the peace of God because it's outside of our realm. Once we're in heaven and eternity, we're going to get a different view, a different manifestation of who God is. But for now, we can't fully comprehend it. It's like trying to understand the entire expanded universe; we can't. I don't care how long you study, you're never going to fully understand it because God made it too big, too magnificent, and too much is going on. God is always way ahead of us.

But when you have the peace of God, you know it. Often when trials are going on in your life, or you get a bad report, you go to God and come back with that peace of God where you say, "I don't know how He's going to work it out, but I just know it's going to be okay."

It's like this church: I know it's going to be okay. I have the peace of God about the future of this church, and it is bright, mighty, and powerful. But we have to surrender to Almighty God and allow Him to rule and reign in our lives. When you have the peace of God, you know it.

The peace of God, literally translated, means "absence of conflict." I don't know about you, but if I can get through my day without conflict, that's a good day! Because there's every sort of conflict out there. You get up in the morning, comb your hair, look in the mirror, and think you're the cutest thing since you-know-what. Then you go out, get in your car, and somebody cuts you off—boom, conflict! You go to work, and somebody didn't do what they said they were going to do—conflict! You get a phone call: "Hi honey, did you take the trash cans out?" Conflict! By the way, my Mother's Day gift to my wife is to take the trash cans out early and on time. That's my gift—it's a joke, she knows the joke.

The point is, we have conflict in everything we do, but the peace of God overrides that. Think about that for a second. "I don't know how, but I know it's going to be okay." I know this church is going to survive, I know it's going to be okay, and I have no apprehension about where we're going. It's up to God how He does it, because He's going to work through Pastor John to bring in all these parts, and it's going to look like something we have never seen before. We're not in on the conversations Pastor John has with God any more than you were in on the conversations I was having with God, except for when I deliver them here. Leadership can be a lonely place, especially as a pastor. You have to listen, trust God, not be anxious about anything, and fulfill the call.

So it's literally translated as the absence of conflict. The Old Testament refers to God as Yahweh Shalom—the Lord of Peace or the God of Peace. Sometimes in prayer, we say, "Lord, I know you are Yahweh Shalom, the God of Peace." What that does is reinforce in us that we know God has His hands on it, God's in control, and He is the one who is going to take care of all this. We're trusting in God, Yahweh Shalom. (By the way, if you want to know why I didn't say "Jehovah" instead of "Yahweh," you can talk to me afterward out there!)

Dwelling on Excellence and Practicing Faith

Verse 8: "Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence, if anything worthy of praise, dwell on these things."

"Dwell" means to live there. It's an abode; it's your house; it's who we are. He says "finally" — this is the closing of the letter. "Finally, brethren, after I've said all of that to you, here is a little nugget you take home. Whatever is true (which is the gospel, our Lord, Christ, and the Holy Spirit), whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence, and if anything is worthy of praise..." We praise Almighty God because He's telling us to rejoice in the Lord. Dwell on these things.

In other words, don't worry about the circumstances — just rejoice in the Lord. It's not that you don't acknowledge what's going on in your life, but you trust that God will take care of it and work it out. I can't tell you how many times I've had obstacles in my life where it looked like everything was going to shut down and nothing would happen, but I had this peace. I said, "I don't know how it's going to happen, but it's going to work out," and praise God, it worked out in unbelievable ways.

But you have to trust, you have to believe, and you must not be anxious or worry. Realize that the people you encounter out there, whether they admit it or not, are worried because they see all the chaos, the danger, and what's going on, and they don't have any answers. You and I have the answer, and the answer is in the Bible; the answer is in Christ. Understand who you are in Christ, dwell on these things, and become these things.

I'll close with this, verse 9: "The things you have learned and received and heard and seen in me, practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you." He says, "Practice these things."

We talked about it last week with Olympic athletes. What do they do twenty-four hours a day? Whether they're eating, sleeping, or working out, they're practicing for that one event that might last ten seconds or less. Everything goes into practicing for that. What if we did this with our faith and our trust in God? What if we totally immersed ourselves in God? Wake up in the morning, give Him thanks and praise, encounter whatever is going on, meet it with a smile, and rejoice in God. You don't let troubles overwhelm you, you're not anxious, and you're willing to preach the gospel and do all these things. Then, you know that peace will overcome you—the peace of God. In scripture, it overcomes you; it's like you're going in a direction, and all of a sudden, it just embraces you. This is how God works: He embraces you, He overcomes you, and He says, "Practice these things." These are things we must do.

So verses 8 and 9 are the outcome of the context of the passage. "Do these things. I said all of that to tell you this: Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence, if anything worthy of praise, dwell on these things. The things you have learned and received and heard and seen in me, practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you."

The approach of Christianity is relational. I came to the Lord because someone invited me to church. I came to the Lord because someone took the time to pray for me. I came to the Lord because someone didn't give up. It is relational. When we invite, speak, and talk to another human being about God, it is relational. So, exhibit these qualities in your relationships, and it will draw people—not so much to you, because what you're doing is trying to draw them to Christ. We say, "This is who God is," we get out of the way, and we show them Christ, and now they get hooked onto Christ.

How we relate to others directly impacts our ministry. Moving forward, how we do things and how we impact others is based upon how we are perceived. Are we cranky? Are we irritable? Are we unapproachable? Or are we loving, kind, gentle, peaceful, willing to go the long distance, and willing to go out of our comfort zone to help a ministry in Downtown LA, take somebody to lunch, or invite somebody to church? Are we willing to do that?

Let us pray.

"Lord, strengthen us for the journey. Strengthen us along your way, your path, and we will acknowledge you in all things. We will rejoice in you, give you praise, give you honor, and all the glory. In Jesus' name we pray," and the church said, "Amen."

Praise God. Is there anything more precious to dwell on than on the gospel message of Jesus Christ? We are sinners in need of a Savior, and He came down to die for us, pay the penalty of our sin that we deserved to pay on the tree, and rose victorious from the dead. We get to celebrate that every Sunday, and we get to celebrate that some more as we stand and sing our last song. It's in your bulletin: "The Lord Is My Salvation." Let's stand and sing together.

The grace of God has reached for me and pulled me from the raging sea; And I am on the solid ground: The Lord is my salvation. I will not fear when darkness falls, His strength will help me scale these walls; I'll see the dawn of the rising sun: The Lord is my salvation.

Who is like the Lord our God? Strong to save, faithful in love. My debt is paid and the victory won: The Lord is my salvation.

My hope is secured in the Lord, His promise is my shield and sword; When winter fades, I know spring will come: The Lord is my salvation. In times of waiting, times of need, when I am lost and I am weak; I know His grace will renew these days: The Lord is my salvation.

Who is like the Lord our God? Strong to save, faithful in love. My debt is paid and the victory won: The Lord is my salvation.

And when I reach the final day, He will not leave me in the grave; But I will rise, He will call me home: The Lord is my salvation.

Who is like the Lord our God? Strong to save, faithful in love. My debt is paid and the victory won: The Lord is my salvation.

Glory be to God the Father, glory be to God the Son, Glory be to God the Spirit: The Lord is our salvation. Glory be to God the Father, glory be to God the Son, Glory be to God the Spirit: The Lord is my salvation, the Lord is our salvation, the Lord is my salvation.

Amen. And now, may the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all. Amen. Amen.