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[0:00] Good morning. Today's scripture lesson is from 1 Peter 2, verses 9-17. But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God's special possession, that you may declare the praise of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.

[0:22] Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God. Once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy. Dear friends, I urge you, as foreigners and exiles, to abstain from sinful desires, which wage war against your soul.

[0:41] Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us. Submit yourselves for the Lord's sake to every human authority, whether to the emperor as the supreme authority or to governors, who are sent by him to punish those who do wrong and to commend those who do right.

[1:06] For it is God's will that by doing good you should silence the ignorant talk of foolish people. Live as free people, but do not use your freedom as a cover-up for evil.

[1:16] Live as God's slaves. Show proper respect to everyone. Love the family of believers. Fear God. Honor the emperor.

[1:27] This is the word of the Lord. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.

[1:38] Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. God bless America, my home sweet home.

[2:25] God bless America, my home sweet home.

[2:41] Bless America, my home sweet home. There, doesn't it?

[2:56] Not a sound in the whole field, quiet as a church during a sermon on a Sunday. Oh, I'm sorry. Not our church. Not our church. We've been answering questions that people gave us right out of the congregation.

[3:12] If you could ask God something, what would you ask him? And we're on the last question for this particular series. However, if you still have a question, you want to see if we can get it answered, there is a basket out there and some yellow cards.

[3:24] Put your question on there. Put it in the basket. And next week, during each service, I'm going to pull out different questions and answer them. I'm not going to look at them in advance. I will tell you, though, Pastor Sherry will go through them and make sure there's nothing in there that when I read it, I'm going to go, oh, I didn't read that in church.

[3:39] So she will edit those kind of things. But otherwise, we'll just see how that goes. Is God a good American? That was one of the questions. Is God a good American?

[3:52] And is there a difference between American ideals and Christian ideals? Well, obviously, God doesn't belong to America. Obviously, God belongs to the nation.

[4:03] God belongs to the world. God belongs to everyone. And everyone, more to the point, belongs to God. So the real question we really are asking is, does God bless America more than other nations?

[4:23] In verse 9 of this passage, it says, You are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God's special possession. Does God choose particular nations to bless?

[4:37] In the book of Exodus, in chapter 19, it says that God proclaimed to the Israelites, If you obey me fully and keep my covenant, then out of all the nations, you will be my treasured possession.

[4:49] God chooses countries on the basis of whether or not they keep God's covenant and obey him. Is America a country that obeys God and keeps God's covenant?

[5:04] Is this a Christian nation? When I grew up, we called ourselves a Christian nation. In fact, when we went to school, we were told we were a Christian nation.

[5:17] And so I did a little bit of looking at the statistics just to see how things are in our country. In the 1960s, 98% of the people believed in God. Now it's 87%, still a pretty good amount of people.

[5:31] 91% of all the people considered themselves Christian. Now 71% considered themselves Christians. This one's really startling.

[5:42] In 1960, 43% of the people were in church every given weekend. Now, 18%. By the way, they do surveys and the people say that 40% are going to church, but only 18% are there.

[5:58] We know that because we know how many are in our churches. And there's not 40%. The churches couldn't hold that many. This is interesting. People think it's because all these people from other religions are coming to our country.

[6:09] 5% were from other religions in 1960. And now, same amount. This is the big difference. 3% believed in nothing in 1960. And now, 23%.

[6:24] 23%. 23%. Actually, those numbers don't add up, do they? 98 and 3 is 101. So we got an extra person in there somewhere. So as a country, it's not that God is abandoning America.

[6:37] But in a sense, we're questioning whether America is abandoning God. Now, actually, the era I grew up in, and most of you grew up in, was actually an outlier for the United States of America.

[6:52] You'll probably find some of this surprising. But in 1776, 17% of Americans considered themselves religious. Did you know that? 17% considered themselves religious.

[7:03] And it took until 1900 before half the people thought of themselves as being religious. We didn't hit 65% until the 1960s.

[7:16] And religious meant that they were connected and involved in a church. So we have those TV shows. Some of you remember, like, Little House on the Prairie? I don't know if you ever noticed, they didn't go to church.

[7:27] You know why they didn't go to church? There were no churches. They lived out on the prairie in a little house. There were no churches anywhere. We didn't have churches until a lot of brave and daring souls spread them across the country.

[7:43] They used to say, two churches a day, the Methodists lead the way. We'll talk about Methodists in the next sermon series and what they are and what we believe. But it was by people that were willing to risk their lives to build a church that we ended up having people who attended church.

[8:01] So it's actually an odd thing because we peaked in my lifetime. We peaked in my lifetime. And now we're in a little different place.

[8:12] Psalm 33, verse 12 says, You want a couple countries that have become more Christian in my lifetime?

[8:30] How about Russia? They used to be an atheist nation and now they're 80% Christian. Isn't that an interesting statistic? And what's the country that's going to become, by statistics, what they suspect in 10 years will be the largest population of Christians in the world?

[8:48] China. China. What does it mean if China and Russia embrace our faith and the United States turns their back on it?

[9:00] Where does that put us as Christians? I love America. America. I don't want you to hear this sermon in any wrong way. I think this is the greatest nation in the world.

[9:12] I believe in the United States. But I love God more. I've heard people say America right or wrong. I don't know that I agree with that.

[9:25] But I do think we can say for God and country. You see, the problem is Christians can be aliens in this world. It says so in verse 11. Dear friends, I urge you as foreigners and exiles to abstain from sinful desires which wage war against your soul.

[9:44] It's a battle between two different cultures. For your heart and your soul and your mind and your strength. Two different worlds. It all started a long time ago.

[9:57] When we had a competition between whether we were going to improve ourselves through human development or improve ourselves by divine intervention.

[10:10] One was represented years ago in a city called Jerusalem and the other one was in a city called Athens. Paul, the apostle Paul, went to Athens.

[10:23] And when he went to Athens, he got up on this platform that they had where people could just tell whatever they wanted to. Tell their ideas, their thoughts. And if they could gather a crowd around them, they would call them great.

[10:35] And if not, then they were just whatever. I think they call it YouTube today. Basically, he got up and made an argument. A sophisticated, philosophical, logical, reasonable argument as to why all the Athenians should become Christians.

[10:52] And you know how they responded? They laughed at Paul. They laughed at Paul and it says in the book of Acts, very few people became Christians.

[11:02] Because he used the argument of the Athenians for God. And all too often, we find ourselves caught in this mix.

[11:15] Because God doesn't have to be logical or reasonable or philosophically correct or agree with your ideas to be God. In 1 Corinthians, Paul, as he was coming from Athens, broken and not sure who he was, said this.

[11:32] Where is the wise person? Where is the teacher of the law? Where is the philosopher of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? For since in the wisdom of God, the world through its wisdom did not know him, God was pleased through the foolishness of what was preached to save those who believe.

[11:50] Something Christians don't like to hear, but it's true. If you're going to try to prove God with an argument, with a discussion, with the philosophical debate, you're going to find yourself handicapped.

[12:04] Because the world of God is the world of Jerusalem, not really of Athens. A long time ago, a wise man named Tertullian said, what does Athens have to do with Jerusalem?

[12:16] Athens is a quest for human achievement, for logic, knowledge, liberty, democracy, reason. Jerusalem is a quest for God. For revelation and discernment and obedience.

[12:30] For salvation. For God is king. In our country, in the founding of our country, when they created our nation, they felt that it was important to try and put up some separation between the church and the state.

[12:45] Do you know why? To protect the church. It's not to protect the government. Because when the government and the church get together, you know who loses? We lose.

[12:58] We lose. Most of those flags up there that have crosses on them have an official Christian church, and most of them have about 3% of their population attending church.

[13:08] Making the government and our faith. Making the government and our faith the same thing is a losing idea for us. We're in a struggle.

[13:21] We're in a struggle for our soul, our hearts, our minds. Who and what we are. One nation. One nation. Under God.

[13:33] Indivisible. With liberty and justice for all. Liberty is an amazing word, isn't it? Liberty means to be set free.

[13:44] To be set free. Freedom is the state of having opportunities to choose and be what you want. But liberty is the state of being set free. And freedom gives us choices.

[13:56] Gives us abilities to do things that are good and things that are bad. Peanuts understood that in their cartoons. Ma'am, what kind of test are we having today?

[14:08] Multiple choice? Good. I choose not to take it. I like that. Verse 16, however, says to us, Live as free people, but do not use your freedom as a cover-up for evil.

[14:26] Live as slaves to God. Freedom is not an excuse to do whatever we want, but an ability to do what God wants. Evil is a force that's greater than any of us.

[14:40] Evil is a force so great that it corrupted an archangel named Lucifer who became Satan. And even an archangel could not overcome the power of evil. And neither can you, and neither can I.

[14:53] It's too powerful for us unless we have help. And the whole idea behind faith is that we need somebody to reach into our world and help us out.

[15:05] Because otherwise we're going to lose. The truth is, people without God in their lives, they don't have the ability to really truly be good. The best they can do is try and fail more and more.

[15:20] It's with the power of God that we're set free to be able to choose. Romans chapter 6 says, Thanks to God that though you used to be slaves to sin, you have come to obey from your heart the pattern of teaching that has now claimed your allegiance.

[15:38] You've been set free from sin and have become, what does it say? Does it say you've become free to do anything you want? That's licentiousness, that's not liberty.

[15:51] You are free to resist sin. Because too much liberty can in and of itself be a bad thing. I had, when we were singing the song this morning, I was thinking of my dogs.

[16:07] Alpha and Omega. Some of you remember them. They've passed on now. But we used to have a wire around our yard. They called it an invisible fence. And if they tried to get out, they got it in the neck, okay?

[16:22] That's why they're buried in our front yard, beyond the wire. They're free, right? But it wasn't good for them to be free when they were alive because they didn't have any concept of the danger of things like cars.

[16:33] They would run right in front of them. They had no respect for them, no idea that they could hurt them. They just did whatever they wanted to. Some of you saw them in your yards. They were everywhere.

[16:47] Not necessarily the places that were good for them. And when they came back, they rarely smelled well. They were set free. But were they really better off?

[17:00] When I made a commitment to my wife, I made a commitment for my own free will to not be free. Because love and relationship causes us to make commitments that puts boundaries that make us better, healthier, happier, safer.

[17:16] Part of our difficulty in our country is we confuse liberty with licentiousness. Liberty is to be set free from the powers that would destroy us.

[17:29] Licentiousness is doing whatever we want. A cover-up, as it says, for evil. In verse 12, Peter says, Live such good lives among the pagans, as there are people who don't believe in God, that though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify you on the day when God visits.

[17:57] What will people say about you and about me and about what we were and what we did and what we said on the day that God comes? Will they see God in our actions and who and what we are?

[18:17] Are we committed to God? It's an interesting thing that I've had people argue about whether we should have the American flag in our sanctuary.

[18:29] Some pastors refuse to have it and they take it out. I've had people take it out and put it back and take it out and put it back. I've had people say to me, If you take that flag out, I'm out of here. I've had lots of different things about the flag.

[18:41] It sits over there in the corner. I don't think it hurts anything. I've really never seen it abuse anybody or attack anybody or hurt anybody. I don't think the real issue in our world is so much that we have a problem of the United States and the ideals of Athens influencing us.

[19:00] I think the problem is we need more God in the rest of our lives. It's not that we have too much of America in our church. It's that we don't have enough of God in America.

[19:12] Christianity can coexist with Athens. We can be good Christians and good Americans. And as a nation, we were for over a century.

[19:25] And we certainly have the ability to put our Christian ideals into the ideas of Athens. Sometimes it comes out a little strange. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

[19:47] Amen. Sometimes it's a little confusing. But the truth of the matter is, is most of the people who lead our country are Christians.

[19:59] I know it's hard for you to conceive of it, but there's even Christians in the other party you don't belong to. And as much as it troubles many of you, if we really, really ask people to show their hands, and I'm not going to, you'd probably discover, I know it's a shock, there's probably Democrats and Republicans and independents.

[20:22] There's probably even some people that voted for that dope-smoking governor for president here, in your church, with you.

[20:35] Shocking, isn't it? Because Christians have ended up on both sides. It's okay to disagree. It's okay to disagree with your government.

[20:47] But in this passage, it says that we need to submit. Submit for the Lord's sake, for God's sake, to every human authority, whether to the president as a supreme authority, or to the governors who are sent by him to punish those who do wrong and to commend those who do right.

[21:11] Did I say president? I meant emperor. That's what it says in here. You see, the difficulty is is that most of these people are coming from different viewpoints, but they're really trying to accomplish good things.

[21:24] The political parties, they don't care. I don't know if you know this, but if you study history, what you'd know right now is that the Republicans and the Democrats have flipped. What the Democrats believed a few decades ago is what the Republicans believe now, and what the Republicans believed is what the Democrats believed, and even their constituency is the opposite.

[21:43] You might not know that, but go back in history. You'll find out. That the parties have changed, because really, they're just trying to seek their own ability to control it.

[21:55] But I think the people in it are Christian and trying to seek what God wants. Verse 17 says, show proper respect to everyone. Show proper respect to everyone.

[22:10] Love the believers. Really love the believers. Fear God. And honor the president. Wow, that's a kind of wild concept, isn't it, in our world?

[22:23] You know, when did we decide it was okay to hate each other? When did we decide that liberty meant it was okay to say evil, nasty, hurtful things about each other? It was okay to completely destroy our leaders and talk about them as if they're not human.

[22:39] And I'm not talking about any one party, because this didn't start a couple years ago. This has been going on now and growing and growing. It's okay to tear somebody apart so long as they belong to those other people.

[22:51] Do you hear me? We protect people who say hateful, hurtful, nasty things in the name of liberty. And I don't think that's the liberty God had in mind.

[23:05] Respect everyone. Love the believers. Show honor to the people who are trying to do their best. You're a chosen people.

[23:17] A royal priesthood. Not I'm the priest. We're all the priesthood of God, representing God in this world. A holy nation. God's special possession that you might declare the praises of God who called you out of darkness.

[23:32] Called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. This little light of mine. I'm going to let it shine. This little light of mine.

[23:44] I'm going to let it shine. Shine around the whole wide world. I'm going to let it shine. One nation.

[23:56] Under God. God's not an American, but Americans can follow God. Amen? There's no reason they can't. When Paul went to Athens, they laughed at Paul.

[24:07] And Paul decided he had to change the way he was going to do things. He was going to stop arguing about God. He was going to stop trying to do philosophy. He was a brilliant man. He was trained in the Greek universities.

[24:19] He knew how to do philosophy. He knew how to do logic and reason. He decided he wasn't going to do that anymore. This is what he said in 1 Corinthians. We preach Christ and Christ crucified.

[24:30] A stumbling block to the religious people and foolishness to the wise ones. But to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God.

[24:45] It's not Jerusalem. It's not religions. It's not Athens. It's not government. It's Christ crucified. The God that changes everyone's life if they'll allow it.

[25:00] That we need to remember every day. Last Friday night I went to the graduation over at Star Point. There's a place where they all had a stand up. You ever do this before? And we put our hands on our hearts like this and we said, I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all.

[25:27] All the Boy Scouts went two. You don't know what that means. That's okay. You know why we could say that? I don't say that very much anymore. I say it about two or three times a year.

[25:40] But it was drilled into me when I was a child. Right? Every day. Every day. I was reminded of that. Every day. Every day. Whether I liked it or not I heard it. Every day. Every day. Do we do that with God?

[25:52] Do we remind ourselves of who we are? If you've been in this church any length of time you've probably heard the Apostles' Creed and I'm sure you could do it by heart. Right? Do you believe in God the Father?

[26:08] Give them some help, Adrian. Some of them don't know the answer here. Do you believe? in Jesus Christ. Do you believe in the Holy Spirit?

[26:42] Do you believe in the Holy Spirit? Amen.

[26:57] Can you imagine if every day we said that to ourselves? Could you imagine if our children memorized that like the Pledge of Allegiance? Could you imagine if that became a part of who and what we are? You'd have to even explain to them what we mean by believing in the Catholic Church wouldn't you?

[27:11] That's a universal church in case you didn't know that. Of course we believe in all churches. Any power that God can use. How much are we bringing God into our world, into our country?

[27:24] We're going through a lot of changes in this church because right now I'm trying to figure out where God is leading us so that we can be a force to influence our lives, our children's lives, our community, this whole area with God because you know I showed you those statistics but I didn't show you this.

[27:41] On a state, on a map of the United States of America, the state that's near the lowest amount of people being involved in a religious faith is not California.

[27:56] It's New York. We live in a post-Christian culture. 300,000 people, your neighbors, stopped going to church in the last 10 years. Right now, I bet you if you drove around, 9 out of 10 people would be home.

[28:13] Fascinating, isn't it? God wants to change our world but we need to change with Him. Galatians chapter 5 says to us, You brothers and sisters who are called to be free, don't use your freedom to indulge the flesh, rather serve one another humbly in love for the entire law is fulfilled in keeping this one command, love your neighbors as yourself.

[28:40] Christ didn't come to win elections. He came to change the world. John says, When I am lifted up from the earth, I will draw all people, all nations unto me.

[28:55] The key is, how are we living our lives in this world we live in? How are we living our lives in this America we live in?

[29:05] How are we living our lives with our neighbors? What do they see? Peanuts people will tell you it's all about attitude. It's years worth catching.

[29:18] What do people think of us? Verse 12, it says, Live such good lives among the pagans that though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God.

[29:32] Is that what they say? What do they think of us as a church? Oh, that's the fish fight church, right? Oh, that's the church with the rummage sails, right? Oh, that's the church with the preschools. Is that the church with the children's programs?

[29:43] Is that the church where they talk about God? Is that the church where people go to hear about God? Is that the church that's reaching out and trying to feed people in Niagara Falls and Buffalo and Nicaragua? That's the church that cares for people.

[29:55] If you need help, that's the church to go to. That's the church where they'll love you. That's the church where they'll accept you. Christians are getting an awful bad reputation as being self-righteous, judgmental.

[30:13] A couple years ago for Easter, some of you remember this. I put on a crummy wig, a crummy wig, and an old shirt. Oh, good Lord, he's got a picture.

[30:27] There it is. Now, really, that's such a great disguise, isn't it? I walked in the sanctuary dressed like that. I sat down next to parishioners.

[30:38] They moved over. I had one fellow said I put my kids on the other side of me and grabbed a couple pencils. I had two, three of them say that they had their hand on their gun. fascinating idea.

[30:52] Because if I did the wrong thing, not knowing it, I might have ended up on the floor because I wore a crummy wig and an old shirt. It's all that had changed about me.

[31:03] That was the only thing different about me. Pastor Suzanne tried to do that. Some of you remember Pastor Suzanne? At her new church, they had her arrested. They had her arrested. Are we loving?

[31:17] Are we loving people into heaven? Or are we pushing them away? Attitude. You are a royal priesthood.

[31:30] A chosen people. A holy nation. God's special possession that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.

[31:43] Do we represent God properly? At that graduation, something really weird happened at the end. Okay? And you had to really listen to hear it. But a few of the graduating seniors started singing a song.

[31:58] Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. The problem is, is most of the people there didn't know the song.

[32:12] Most of the graduates there didn't know the song. And so it slowly faded away. And I thought, yeah! Our kids! I don't know if it was our kids or somebody else's kids, but they're our kids.

[32:25] Amen? Because they weren't afraid to say, God can bring light into darkness. Verse 10, it says, once you were not a people, but now you're the people of God.

[32:41] Once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy. And if God has really forgiven you, and if God has taken away your sins, and you feel freed and liberated from the power of Satan and evil, are you showing mercy so that people will hear it, will feel it, will see it, like this police officer did.

[33:08] Wife and two children. You get paid, pay your bills, there's your money, it's gone. It didn't help when the Wiley man was recently pulled over by Plano police for an expired registration sticker.

[33:20] Now I said, there's no explanation for why I haven't done it, except for that I don't have the money. I said it was either feed my kids or get this registration done.

[33:31] The officer wrote a citation and handed it to the 25-year-old. Opened it up, and there's a $100 bill. I was like, I broke down in my car, what else do you do? The officer never told anyone about the $100 gift, but Carlo's grandfather was so moved by the kind gesture, he wrote a letter to the department.

[33:50] I get emotional when we talk about this type of thing. You just don't find many officers do the type thing. The officer doesn't want to be identified, but his co-workers plan to honor him anyway.

[34:02] As he basically told me, he felt that this young man needed it more than him, and it was just the right thing to do. Carlo was able to update not only the registration on his car with the money, but also his wife's.

[34:15] Now driving to a new job and providing for his growing family after a gift from the last person in the world he expected one from during tough times.

[34:26] He helped me out when I needed it, and I appreciate that. I'll never forget that, man. It definitely restored my faith in God. And he restored my faith in God because somebody saw that Christians don't just talk about it.

[34:43] They do something about it. They let people see that God tells us to love our neighbors.

[34:54] Would we do that? We say, you fool, you should have gotten the inspection done. I love this country. I think it's like no other nation on earth.

[35:05] I think it provides us with the liberty where the Christian faith can do and be whatever God wants us to be. And it is the greatest possible nation for that.

[35:17] Do you love this country? Do you love it enough to keep it from going to hell? Do you love it enough to keep it from going into the brokenness, into the hate, into the licentiousness that will destroy all of us?

[35:32] Do you love it enough to start loving your enemy? Do you love it enough to get off these foolish conversations on Facebook? Do you love it enough to really love people the way God loved you?

[35:47] You. You are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God's special possession that you might decide, declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.

[36:01] my dogs used to get loose. Some of you will remember, we'd be going up and down the street, Alpha, Omega.

[36:12] Anybody ever do this looking for a dog? You feel like the biggest fool in the world. You're in people's yards, Alpha, Omega. You're like, get out of here. Who are you, right? But you keep looking.

[36:24] You keep searching because you don't want the ones that you love to be lost or hurt. God wants you to be out there searching in the darkness, searching down the highways and the byways, going over to your neighbors, going over to your coworkers, going to your friends, going to the people you care about, your family, your children, your parents, your brothers, your sisters, and saying, God is good.

[36:49] He's changed my life. I don't have to prove them. Just look at my world. Look at my life, how God has changed me and live into that and then this little light of mine, I'm going to let it shine.

[37:03] This little light of mine, I'm going to let it shine. This little light of mine, I'm going to let it shine. Let it shine.

[37:13] Let it shine. Let it shine. God calls us to be his people above and beyond all things. God's not American, but Americans can be following God.

[37:39] We bow our heads, we bend our knees, O Spirit, come make us humble. We turn our eyes from evil things, O Lord, we cast down our idols.

[38:00] Give us clean hands, give us clean hands, give us pure hearts, let us not lift our souls to another.

[38:12] Give us clean hands, give us pure hearts, let us not lift our souls to another.

[38:23] God of God, God of Jacob, God of Jacob, let us speak, let us speak, a generation that seeks, who seeks our face, O God of Jacob.

[38:35] God of Jacob, God of Jacob, let us speak, a generation that seeks, who seeks our face, O God of Jacob.

[38:47] God of Jacob, we bow our heads, we bend our knees, O Spirit, come make us humble.

[39:01] Lord, we turn our eyes from evil things, O Lord, we cast down our idols.

[39:13] Give us clean hands, give us pure hearts, let us not lift our souls to another.

[39:25] Give us clean hands, give us pure hearts, let us not lift our souls to another.

[39:36] O God, let us be, a generation that seeks, who seeks your face, O God of Jacob.

[39:48] O God, let us be, a generation that seeks, who seeks your face, O God of Jacob.

[39:59] give us clean hands, give us pure hearts, let us not lift our souls to another.

[40:10] you are not a God created by the human hands, you are not a God dependent on any more man, you are not a God created by the human hands, you are not a God dependent on any more man, you are not a God in freedom, anything we can give by your man, that's just the way.

[40:48] you are not a God created by the human hands, you are not a God dependent on any more man, you are not a God in freedom, anything we can give by your man, that's just the way.

[41:17] you are not a God alone, you are not a God alone, you are not a God alone, And right now, in the good times of death, you are on your throne, you are not alone.

[41:49] You're the only God whose power none can contend. You're the only God whose name and praise will never end.

[42:01] You're the only God whose worthy of everything we can give. You are God, and that's just the way it is.

[42:15] You are God alone from the whole time began. You are on your throne, you are God alone.

[42:26] And right now, in the good times of death, you are on your throne, you are God alone.

[42:39] You're unchanged, you're unshakable. You're unstoppable, that's what you want.

[42:50] You're unshakable, you're unshakable. You're unstoppable, that's what you want.

[43:01] You are God alone from the whole time began. You are on your throne, you are God alone.

[43:11] You are God alone from the whole time began. You are on your throne, you are God alone.

[43:24] You are unchangeable, you're unshakable. You're unstoppable, that's what you want.

[43:35] You are unchangeable, that's what you want.

[44:05] You are unchangeable, that's what you want. You are unchangeable, that's what you want. You are unchangeable, that's what you want. Let's turn our hearts over to God. Confess what we've done wrong and seek God's mercy, that we might be people of mercy to share mercy with others.

[44:22] Dear God in heaven, I have sinned by the things I've done, by the things I haven't done, by the things I've said and the things I haven't said.

[44:41] Forgive me, Lord. Change my heart. Change my soul. Change my mind. That I might be a strength for you.

[44:56] To the people I love. To the community I love. And the nation I love. Forgive me, Lord. In Jesus' name we pray.

[45:10] Amen. We can change it, believe it or not. They only had 12 guys back then. Look what they did. They changed the whole world. There's a lot more than 12 people here.

[45:23] We can change things. We all decide that we're going to be God's. In the name of Jesus Christ, your sins are forgiven. Amen. Glory to God.

[45:36] Amen. Amen. Amen. Come, thou font of every blessing.

[45:53] Tune my heart to sing thine grace. Streams of mercy never ceasing. Call for songs of loudest praise.

[46:08] Tis this song's melody is sung. Sung by flaming tongues above. Praise the cross, I'm fixed upon it.

[46:23] Cross of thy redeeming love. Oh, to grace, how great a debtor.

[46:33] Daily I'm constrained to be. Let thy goodness, like a feather, Bind my wandering heart to thee.

[46:48] Brown to honor, Lord, I feel it. Brown to live, the God I love. Here's my heart, oh, take and seal it.

[47:04] Seal it for thy courts above. The Lord be with you.

[47:20] Lift up your hearts. Let us give thanks to the Lord our God. Is right. Is right. Is right. Is right.

[47:31] And a good and joyful thing, always and everywhere, to give thanks to you, Father Almighty, creator of heaven and earth. You formed us in your image and breathed into us the breath of life.

[47:46] When we turned away and our love failed, your love remained steadfast. You delivered us from captivity, made covenant to be our sovereign God, and spoke to us through the prophets.

[48:02] And so, with your people on earth and all the company of heaven, we praise your name and join their unending hymn. Holy, holy, holy Lord, God of power and might, heaven and earth are full of your glory.

[48:18] Hosanna in the highest. Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. Hosanna in the highest. Holy are you and blessed is your Son, Jesus Christ.

[48:29] Hosanna in the highest.

[48:59] Hosanna in the highest. Warm mois. Hosanna in the highest. Hosanna in the highest.

[49:10] Hosanna in quoted Oiyetimus. Hosanna in the highest. Hosanna in the highest. Hosanna in the highest. Hosanna pooling in the highest.

[49:21] Hosanna canal in the highest. Hosanna in the highest. Hosanna in the highest. Hosanna in the highest. given for you, for the forgiveness of sins.

[49:35] Eat of this often, remembering me. And when the supper was over, he took the cup and he gave thanks to God and he said, this is the blood of the new covenant poured out for you, poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.

[49:56] Drink of this often, remembering me. And so in remembrance of these, your mighty acts in Jesus Christ, we offer ourselves in praise and thanksgiving as a holy and living sacrifice in union with Christ's offering for us as we proclaim the mystery of faith.

[50:19] Christ has died. Christ is risen. Christ will come again. Pour out your Holy Spirit on us gathered here and on these gifts of bread and wine. Make them be for us the body and blood of Christ that we may be for the world, the body of Christ, redeemed by his blood.

[50:40] By your Spirit, make us one with Christ, one with each other, and one in ministry to all the world until Christ comes in final victory and we feast at his heavenly banquet.

[50:52] Through your Son, Jesus Christ, with the Holy Spirit, in your Holy Church, all honor and glory is yours, Almighty Father, now and forever. Amen.

[51:03] Now let us pray the prayer that Jesus taught us by saying, our Father, our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.

[51:18] Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil, for thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory forever and ever.

[51:38] Amen. Will those who are serving, please come forward. Thank you.

[52:11] Thank you.

[52:41] Thank you.

[53:12] And now you're invited to join us at the table at the rail for prayers for healing to light a candle. If Jesus is calling in your heart, you're welcome at the table. No matter who you are, where you come from, whether you're a member of our church or not, this is where we meet God and we receive him into our lives.

[53:27] So you're welcome to come and join us this morning. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.

[53:38] Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.

[54:41] Amen. Amen.

[55:41] Amen. Amen.

[56:41] Amen. Amen.

[57:41] Amen. Amen.

[58:13] Amen. Amen. I'm kind of thinking we're going to do this motorcycle blessing thing right after church because they're all going to be waiting for hot dogs so we'll get the motorcycles blessed while they wait for hot dogs and then we'll come back in to the church.

[58:45] come in and just eat them, right? I'm thinking that way anyways. You've got a motorcycle, I'll meet you out in the parking lot shortly after service ends. You know, this is a song we haven't sung in a while, but it seemed perfect for what we're talking about today. So I'm going to invite you, if you're able to stand, as we're going to sing together, Shine Jesus Shine.

[59:15] Shine Jesus Shine Fill this land with The God is glory Blaze, Spirit, Blaze Set our hearts on fire Oh, river flow Fondation With grace and blessing To chant the new earth Lord and land Every night Oh, the light of the love Shading In the midst of the dry Shading Be the light of the love Thy love Set asleep By the tune I'll make up Shine Shine Shine Shine Shine Shine Shine

[60:16] Shine Shine Shine Shine Shine Shine Shine In the Father's glory Praise Spirit, Praise Let our God God Come Come Come Come Come growth motivate Come� volver proces Brands�� Generation stations and warmer Sam Honeyienced Ninaem Erica fuerza Mm-hmm.

[61:07] I am here, I am here. Thank Jesus Christ, who is naked.

[61:18] The Bible is pouring. Place here in place that our hearts are gone. Don't ever fall, but the nation's a place that has been.

[61:36] And look upon, on a wet fairy life. It's so easy to mess up.

[61:49] That little dog came to me on the back patio about a week or two ago. Jumped all over me, I looked at his collar, there was no tags or anything, and he was gone. I thought, I should have grabbed him. Then he came back.

[62:00] He jumped all over me again, and he was gone again. I thought, I should have grabbed him. Three times he came. Three times I didn't get him. Should have grabbed him.

[62:11] I hope he wasn't your dog. Should have put a tag on his collar. But that's not your fault. I should have grabbed him. I hope there aren't people out there that we shouldn't grab and we don't.

[62:21] I hope there's not people in your family and your friends in your neighborhood that you work with that we should grab for Jesus, and we don't. May God bless you to be a blessing to this world.

[62:31] May God take you out into this world to shine your light to all the world to see. May God set your hearts on fire today and always. Go in his peace. Amen.

[62:42] Thank you. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.ération P祝 bre者 Amen.

[62:55] Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.

[63:10]  Amen.