Heart: Justice

Yeah, I may have to bring out my champion belt from the volunteer appreciation event the next time we, cause I feel like I need to, I don't know, celebrate something awesome. It's great. Hi family. How are you? So good to see you all glad you're here with us and glad you're joining us online. Hope you're blessed by what you experienced this morning. I just want to introduce this series. We're going to jump in for two weeks on a couple of really important concepts that actually came out of last weekend. And then after we're done, we're going to jump into advent, which I'm excited about doing that again this year. But, last weekend Brad was here and he killed it. It was so good, so good. Um, I taught him everything he knows. No, he's so amazing. Right? He saw like how in the world? It's so brilliant.

Anyway, Friday night, he did The Restoration of All Things and he did this whole big timeline of the Bible, right? And one of the major themes that came out of that, sorry, I sucked some spit down the wrong pipe, so attractive. 
All right, I'm better. I'm good. Ready to go. Now I'm really ready to go. One of the major themes that he talked about was what does God keep calling his people back to in this, in this restoration of all things where he's invited us to partner with him to restore what sin broke, what is, what does God keep coming, inviting us back to? And what he keeps inviting us back to, is justice and righteousness, justice, and righteousness, justice, and righteousness. And so, what I want to do over the next two weeks is, I want to take one week and pull apart each one of those things. And so, this week we're gonna look at justice and then next week we're going to look at righteousness and how do we understand those things and how important are those things to God. Okay. And so, that's what we're gonna talk about over the next couple of weeks.

Are you guys ready to go to work? I am so excited. I believe especially as the world is starting to recalibrate, that we have got to take a look at these things seriously. And, and there's some hard lines that the church has not been good about walking in here, these conversations that we gotta have that are scary to have, cause we're going to step on toes. And, um, I don't know that I'm ready for it. I just know that this is where the Lord is taking my heart in my time with him. And I believe that the only thing that I can share with you is what God's doing in me. And that's all I have. This, there's nothing particularly pertinent about me or my words. I can only share with you what the Lord is teaching me. And so, I hope this is a blessing for you guys. Micah, chapter six, this book that we've all poured over this minor prophet, the prophet Micah is wrestling with this really important question. And you'll be familiar with this verse. If you've been in the church, if you were in the church in the nineties, you'll be familiar with this verse. Cause there was a praise song that came out of this passage. Here's the question that the prophet is wrestling with. It says, “with what shall I come before the Lord, and bow myself before God on high?” What does this mean? What's he asking? Was he asking, God, how do I worship you? What do you want me to do to worship you? What are you asking for, God? How can I show you how important you are to me? How can I worship you? “Shall I come before him with burnt offerings “ -- sacrifices were the way that they worshiped God in biblical times. So, like to “come before him with burnt offerings, with calves a year old? Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams?” Is that what you want God? “With 10 thousands of rivers of oil?” Is that what you want? You want me to create? I'm going to offer up so much oil, um, olive oil, and as a sacrifice you learn as we 10 thousands of rivers of oil. Is that what you want? “Shall I give my first born for my transgression?” You want child sacrifice, God? All the other gods required it. You want my child. Is that what you want? You want child sacrifice? “The fruit of my body for the sin of my soul? He's told you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you?” That actually would be a really important thing to know. What does God “require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness and to walk humbly with your God?”

It is an act of worship for you and me to be able to do justice in this world. It is us worshiping God. That's what Micah says. How do you want me to worship you, God? Do justice, love kindness, and walk humbly with your God. That means we probably have to understand what justice is. The word justice is the Hebrew word Mishpat. Let me hear you say mishpat, good. You haven't lost your touch. The geysers taken one step closer to Hebrew scholarship, mishpat isn't justice in the way that we often think of justice. We think of justice like retribute of justice. What that means is you do the crime. You do the time, right? Justice is you being held to account for making a mistake. You break the law. Justice is a fine or 30 days in jail or whatever, whatever it is. That's retributive justice. Mishpat isn't that. Mishpat is distributive justice. What that means is everybody in the world that God has made has a portion that's given to them by God, a role to play in the world. And that portion is not all equal. It's not all equal. That would be communism. That is not what the Bible teaches the portion’s not all equal. Then we don't. Cause, cause here's the deal. You can't help. Like some people are just gonna make money. They're just gonna -- I love having those people as friends. 
I'm not those people. I'm not I'm really good at spending money. There are some people who are just so good at like they just, whatever, it just, they can't  help it. They can't. Cause it's not even about making money. There's other things about them in the, in how they engage in the world that just leads to make. But that's not really the money part isn't even the thing. It's something else. Right? But there are those people. And then there are people that are like, no matter what you do, they're never going to have very much money because they're so good at spending it. There, there are like -- not everybody's portion is equal. However, mishpat is making sure that whatever God's portion is for a person in the world, that we, as his people, fight to make sure that nobody gets their portion taken from them. We fight to make sure that nobody gets taken advantage of. That nobody gets mistreated or stood on to build somebody else's world or that nobody-- like mishpat, biblical justice, is us making sure that as we go out into the world, we're pulling up everybody who comes along with us. That as we experience the blessing of God, that blessing becomes, not something that we hoard, but that we we've become a conduit, a blessing conduit into the lives of other people so that we can all make sure that we have what God wants us to have. And that when we see injustice, when we see people getting taken advantage of, that we step into those relationships and make sure that that's rectified. That's God's call. It's an act of worship for you and I to do that. 

Now, what I know is, social justice issues that, that phrase social justice, it has kind of a bad connotation if you've been in the church 30 or 40 years, and you remember the social justice movements of the seventies and eighties, which became the social gospel, which was really not a gospel at all. It was, we're going to do nice things for people and we're going to use God's resources to do that, but we're never going to connect the dots to the gospel. We're never going to connect the dots to the reason that motivates us, that God wants a relationship with them. That God's heart for them is that they would know him and that they would be set free from these things through the power of his spirit, living in them. Like, there was never any connection of that. So when we talk about social justice,
you can't be a part of God's family and not care about social justice issues. You can't.  We have to care about them. Now we need to do them in a way that represents God well, but we have to care. We have to care about these things. In fact, I'm going to propose to you today that the Bible pretty clearly teaches that when we choose, as a church family, to not be a part of a part of those things, that God gets pretty, um, direct about correcting that path. 
I want to share a passage out of Matthew chapter 21, Jesus has just come in during the final week. And he has cleansed the temple. He turned over the tables and um, all those kinds of things. And he says, you guys, my father's house is supposed to be a house of prayer. You've made it a den of robbers, right? By the way, the question is, what are they robbing people of? I'll just state for the record. This is another sermon for another day. But, um, I don't believe that Jesus is talking about money at all. God could bury you in hundred dollar bills tomorrow. He could. That's the kind of God he is. I'm not saying he will. In fact, for most of us its probably better if he didn't, but he could. I don't think what they are robbing people of is their money. I think they were robbing people love is their worship. And that's the part that God couldn't tolerate because what happened was, as soon as Jesus does what he does, it says the lame and the blind and the children come to him and they sing out Hosanna to the son of David and the temple officials say, Hey, tell these people to stop doing that. And he's like, no, I won't do that. Because an encounter with Jesus always inspires worship. It always inspires worship. And then he tells a couple of parables, why does he need to tell two parables? Remember from last week two witnesses, we got to have two witnesses. 

And so what he does is he tells a parable of the guy who has two sons. And he goes to his first son and says, go work in my vineyard. And the son says I will, but then he doesn't go. And then he goes to the second son and, says, Hey, go work in my vineyard. And the second son says, I will not go. But then he has a change of heart and he goes out and he works in his father's vineyard. And the question is which one did the will of the father? And they say, well, the one who actually went out and worked in the vineyard and he's like, correct. Now, let me tell you another story. And that's the story that we're going to focus on this morning. And I want you to pay attention to the parable because what happens in every parable and this is not just true of Jesus. It is true of Jesus, but it's not just true of Jesus. It's true of all first century rabbis. When they tell a parable, they will always put in it a hint. It's called remez. It is not in the first century. It's that would be an addition later on, but it's, it's a hint that anchors the story into what we would call an old Testament passage. Now, at that time it was the Bible. It anchors them into a Bible passage and you go, why is that? Well, because the rest of it wasn't written yet. This is the scripture. So it anchors him into a passage from what we would call the old Testament. In that passage, you find what the rabbi is actually trying to teach you. And so what happens is the rabbi tells a story and then says something like, go and learn the meaning of this, or he who has ears let him hear. I wish that I had that cop out. People are like, I didn't understand what you said, go and learn the meaning of this. I wish -- that'd be awesome. Like I'm some deep scholar, nah, I'm just, didn't say it well. Um, but that, that's what they say, something like that. And then, so then they say the story and then they leave and then you and I are left to go, well, I think it's this passage because dah, dah, dah, dah, dah, dah. And you learn like, no, this just doesn't fit. And so now you and I are chewing up the text and what did the rabbi mean? And what was his heart and how does he prioritize the commands and what do we learn? And buh, buh, buh, buh, buh  and now we're kicking the texts around and that's the best gift that we can give to any rabbi. 

And so Jesus does the same thing in this parable and you and I are going to have to wrestle with what is the remez and what can we learn from that? Here we go. Here's another parable, “There was a master of the house who planted a vineyard and put a fence around it and dug a wine press in it and built a tower and leased it to tenants, and went into another country. When the season for fruit drew near, he sent his servants to the tenants to get his fruit. And the tenants took his servants and beat one, and killed another and stoned another. Again he sent other servants, more than the first. And they did the same to them. Finally, he sent his son to them saying, ‘they'll respect my son.’ But when the tenants saw the son, they said to themselves, ‘this is the heir. Come, let us kill him and have his inheritance.’ And they took him and threw him out of the vineyard and killed him. When therefore the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those tenants?” And they said to him, this is the temple officials, the ones who were the ruling body of Israel. They said to him, “he will put those wretches to a miserable death.” Now the question is, why do they say that so confidently and so abruptly, why did they say that? We'll wrestle with that in a minute, “and let out the vineyard to other tenants who will give him the fruits in their seasons.” And Jesus said to them, “have you never read the scriptures: ‘The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone. This was Lord's doing, and it was marvelous in our eyes.’ By the way, this is a pulled quote out of the Psalms . Jesus quotes the Psalms. And when a rabbi quotes the scriptures, he never means just the scripture. He means the passage around it, the context around it. And he's forcing them into this call, this moment, this messianic poll of you're going to reject the stone and it's going to actually become the foundation stone. You know what the next verse is? The most misquoted verse in the whole Bible, the stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone. This is a mess, like he's laying his life down. This messianic prophecy, this was the Lord's doing. And it was marvelous in our eyes. This is the day that the Lord has made I will rejoice and be glad in it. Now we've pulled that verse out of its context and gone, okay. I woke up today. And so therefore I must be rejoiced in the day. Listen, some days are not worth rejoicing in, right? Like some days are like, Hey, it's I can't wait to just go back to bed. I want a do over on this day, whatever it is. But we feel like we have to rejoice. And we have the, some remember that old song. This is the day-- I remember that. Ha ha ha -- that the Lord has made. Now you remember that, remember that song, right? And we're like, yay. So this is a day Lord made. So we have to adjust. No, no, no, no, no, no. What he's saying is, this day that Jesus as Messiah steps in and gets rejected and, and killed-- this is the day that the Lord is.  And while it feels so brutal, we will rejoice and be glad in it. No, I'm not saying it's the wrong application to say, Hey, if we woke up today, we should be thankful. We should. I'm just saying, that's not what that verse is talking about.
It's really important for us. Context matters, exclamation point. So Jesus quotes this passage. And he says, “therefore, I tell you that the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people producing its fruits. And the one who falls on the stone will be broken to pieces; and when it falls on anyone, it will crush him.’ When the chief priests and the Pharisees heard his parables, they perceived that he was speaking about them.” Like so perceptive, right? Like we're like, how did they miss it? What is going on? Well, how they missed it was because of what he's referring to. You know, let's finish out this passage. He says, “And although they were seeking to arrest him, they feared the crowds because they held him to be a prophet.” How did they miss what he was talking about? Like, how did they miss where he was going? Last week, Brad talked about the book of Isaiah as a book and how much it meant to first century Judaism. It was quoted all over the place. It's a really important book, the book of Isaiah. And, and especially because there's some real parallels to it, there's this desire to be vindicated from oppression. There's this desire to be liberated from Rome, um, and all those kinds of things. And so, Isaiah is a really famous book. One of the most famous passages in Isaiah is a song taken out of Isaiah chapter Five. Let's take a look at it and see if we can't see what Jesus is driving at. “Let me sing
for my beloved, my song concerning his vineyard: My beloved had a vineyard on a very fertile hill. He dug it and cleared it of stones and planted it with the choice vines;” Say sarek. Sarek is a specific kind of grape. It's a really sought after. So choice vines is not a bad way to understand it. If you said sarek grapes, most of us would not know what that means, but it's a really large oversized grape. It's very sweet. And it's really desired for making wine in the first century in this area. And so everybody wanted to sarek grapes. The problem is they're really temperamental. And so you have to care for the vine diligently, or it won't produce very much of a crop. You have to care for it. Okay? You have to know that going in. So, “he cleared it, dug it and cleared it of stones, and planted it with choice vines; he built a watchtower in the midst of it, and hewed out a wine vat in it.” Does any of this sound familiar? “And he looked for it to yield Sarek grapes, but it yielded Be Ushim, which is way funner to say in the Hebrew-- yielded BeU shim --  wild grapes. Here's the thing about Be Ushim, it means bad fruit. He looked for it to yield Sarek, these big, incredible most favoritest grapes, but all it yielded was bad fruit. Now the thing about Be Ushim is that the only way to get bad fruit is that you don't tend to vine. And what happens is, the vine starts to draw too much nutrients from it. And so, it looks essentially like a group of raisins on a bunch it's I got a great picture, but I couldn't find it. This is the problem with my life. I have all these incredible things and none of it's organized. I like that's awesome. That's awesome. That's awesome. Throw it in a pile. Um, welcome to my world. Uh, and so those are the, I couldn't find it, but it looks, it looks nasty, gnarly. Like it looks like little raisins on a bunch of, on a bunch. Um, here's the thing, whoever thought, you know what we could do with these grapes, we could suck all the moisture and the goodness out of them and then sell them. People will love these things. And then we'll put them in oatmeal. It's a marketing ploy. I don't like raisins. I don't like what raisins are Be Ushim. That's what they are like, you didn't tend the grapes and this popped out and now you choose to eat it. It's terrible. But that's what it looks like – Be Ushim -- like we're supposed to have these big juicy grapes and all we've got is these gnarly, nasty raisins. Okay? That's not what we do with choice vine. When you have choice vines, you tend it. You take care of it. You, you understand the gift of what you're using here in this space. “And now, O, inhabitants of Jerusalem and men of Judah, judge between me and my vineyard. What more was there to do for my vineyard, that I have done in it? When I looked for it to yield Sarek grapes, why did it yield Be Ushim? And now I will tell you what I will do to my vineyard. I will remove its hedge, and it shall be devoured;” So when Jesus says to them, what's going to happen to the people, tending the vineyard? They immediately are like, he will bring those wretches to a wretched end which feels like such a strong statement, right? “And it will be trampled down. I will make it a waste; It shall not be pruned or hoed, and briars and thorns shall grow up; I will also command the clouds that they rain no rain upon it. For the vineyard of the Lord of hosts is the house of Israel.” So, in Jesus's parable, who is the vineyard? Israel. Now, think about this from the chief priest’s perspective, who are the ones that are controlling Israel?  Rome. They've abdicated their responsibility, and yet they are taking advantage of the people over and over and over again. And so what Jesus says is no! No, no, no, no, no, no. It's not Rome that's the problem. You are. You're the governing body. Jesus’ entire last week is an indictment on the governmental system of Israel. It's an indictment on them. Someday we'll do lent and we'll walk through the final week of Jesus. It's an indictment on the governmental system. And here he goes right off the top, right off the top. He goes, Hey, you who are at the top. You will, who are sitting in the seats of power of government and not taking care of your people. And that's not, that's not Rome's fault. That's on you. You've created problems. The vineyard of the Lord of hosts is the house of Israel. And the men of Judah are his pleasant planting. And he looked for justice, mishpat, but behold bloodshed (mishak) for righteousness, (zedaca) but behold, an outcry (zeacha), which is the cries of the oppressed. Zeacha is almost a automotopoetic word. You know what that means? It means that when you say it, you have to say it like it sounds like you should cry out “zeacha”. It's the cries of the oppressed. This is the cry described when God comes to Egypt to deliver the slaves, the slaves were so oppressed and God heard their cries. This is the cry of the people in Sodom. It's the cry of those who are being pushed down. Those who are being taken advantage of and what God wants from his people is the opposite of that. God wants mishpat. And he's so determined to get it that if his people will not step out and be a part of mishpat, he will take the vineyard away and will give it to people who will produce its fruit. 

Listen to me, we live in a world that needs God's people to care about justice for all people. Like how can, how can we read the gospels and not care about justice? It's central to the kingdom of God to be engaged in the needs of people who can't help themselves. Now that's a different conversation -- because what always happens when I have this talk with people is they're like, well, what about people who won't, I'm not talking about that. I'm talking about people who can't! We can’t excuse our laziness with them, because we don't want to give other people a handout when they don't care about it. That's such a minute percentage of what we're talking about. We're talking about God's people caring about God's heart. 
We have to care. Like, in our world, right now, there are major issues going on that we've got to deal with as a church in our own community. Like how can God's church not care about trafficking in our world? How can we not care about that? How can we not care about poverty? How can we not care about abortion? How can we not care about that? God – whew, I’m just going to go ahead and tear this bandaid off. God is pro-life Oh, no, hang on, hang on, hang on -- all life. God is pro-life. And I know that the abortion conversation is a complex one. The abortion conversation is a complex one. I know that. And I had all kinds of people talk to me about, well, what about this issue? What about this? I get it. I get it. I get it. I understand all those things. I've had those conversations a lot, but at the end of all of it, God is pro-life. And if like, if we don't stand on that foundation, then we're denying what the word of God teaches. I had somebody complain to me about the fact that I was too political. You're too political. As a pastor, you shouldn't be political. And people land all over the map on that, but here's what they said. This was the reasoning. Jesus was not political. And I was like, I don't even know how to, how to enter into that conversation. Like, first of all, I don't know, kingdom of God, King of the Jews above his head on the cross, like maybe given to Caesar that, which is Caesar's giving to God or, or this whole conversation that we're having today. Like, it's all, it's all political, it's all political. All of it is. And, and, and I, I I'm like, I'm very familiar with the gospels. I read the gospels every week for two and a half years. I'm familiar with the gospels, but here's what I want to say. II Timothy 3:15 says this all scripture is God-breathed, it's all dripping with the presence of God. You don't get to cherry pick. I'm particularly passionate about the life of Jesus. Come with me to Israel. You'll figure that out. But all scripture is God-breathed and useful for teaching for reproof and rebuke. And I just believe that somewhere along the way, and I'm not trying to pick a fight with anybody. I'm just saying that the church in this world where people are so binary there, so it is this or that. And we stand on two sides of a canyon in every issue with this massive fog in between. Like, I believe that the church has an opportunity to help the fog lift so that we can see people as people, not as problems to solve or issues to overcome. But as human beings.
We’ve got to be those kinds of people in the world. We got to care about -- as we received the blessing of God, that we don't hoard the blessing of God, but that we become a conduit for the blessing of God to come through us and into the lives of other people. When we make that commitment, the blessing of God opens up to us more and more and more when we hoard it, the blessing of God has a tendency to dry up. And the reason is because we're trying to build our own empire, not God's kingdom, And God is not messing with this one. He's removing the blessing of the temple because they chose not to care about mishpat, which Micah says is an act of worship to him.

So I have some implications for us this morning. Number one, God calls the church to fight for those who cannot fight for themselves. And again, I know we're going to go, but what about those who won't? Here's the Bible says, If a man won’t work, he shall not eat. Okay. There's nothing to get you motivated like an empty belly. That being said, what about the people who can't? I don't know if I should say this or not. Um, I believe, I believe this is, this is me talking for a minute. I believe that the church was put in the world to be God's dispenser of grace. And I believe that government has put in the world to be God's dispenser of wrath.  And somewhere along the way, they tried to switch roles and neither one is doing a very good job of doing the other one's role. Fundamentally, God calls the church to fight for those who cannot fight for themselves. That's at the heart of justice. It's at the heart of mishpat . 

Number two, caring for one another is an act of worship before the Lord, when we love one another well, it's an act of worship before the Lord. That's what Micah says.

Implication number three, we work against our own blessing when we cannot get along with one another. When we want to make everything a fight and have so much vitriol and venom towards anybody who has a different opinion, like here's the deal. You don't have to agree with me. You don't have to agree with me at all, but let's treat each other nice. Like let's be kind in our conversation.  We work against our own blessing when we cannot get along with one another. And by the way, getting along with one another is not getting along at the expense of opinion. That's uniformity. The Bible doesn't call us to uniformity like the Borg on Star Trek. You know, we will assimilate you. That's not, that's not what we're talking about. What we're talking about is unity, not uniformity. Unity is, I love you before I love being right. And so I'm going to value you as a human before I want to be a truth bully. And I think the problem is the church has been the truth bully in our culture. And now we're getting bullied back and we don't know what to do with it. We don't know what to do with it. 

Implication number four, God works with people who are willing to become what he asks. God works with a group of people who are willing to become what he asks. God will not work with a group of people who refuse. And I don't know about you guys, but for me, I want more and more and more of the presence of God in my life. I want more and more and more of the presence of God in our church and in our community. I want more and more and more of the presence of God in this world. God works with people who are willing to become what he asks. And if that means that he's asking us to become people who care about justice in this world, then we've got to do it. We've got to do it. 

As we move into our Communion time, yeah, we take communion every week together as a church family. And, and I love it because it's this call back to the way of Christianity. The way of the Kingdom is first and foremost and foundationally a way of laying our life down. It's a way of giving to other people in serving them so that they can become more. It's not about amassing our own possessions or building our own kingdom or our own small k kingdom. But it's about building the Kingdom of God. It's about giving towards that. It's about doing giving towards it with my life, with my time talents and energy, um, to, to advance the kingdom of God. And so many times in the world we're invited to consider. But what about this? What about this logical argument? Or what about this? Like, here's the deal. If we don't stand on the foundation of the word of God, then every argument is equal, but the Bible says what it says our job isn't to find the loopholes that get us out of following it. Our job is to submit to the authority of Christ in our life and do what the Bible says to do. I don't know about you guys, but I fully intend for this place to be that kind of a place. And I know that that's not for everybody. But here's what I'll say. When I die, I don't stand before anyone of you.  I'm going to stand before the Lord. More than anything else, I want the Lord to say, well done, you stood in the fray. You stood for the unpopular decision. You took the heat, you got shellacked and you hung in there anyway. And if that's what it means to advance the Kingdom, then amen and amen. Right now I would just invite us as we prepare hearts for communion to consider in your life, where is God invited you into more of a mishpat mindset? Have you bucked that? Have you pushed back against it? Or are you really like wrestling with, how do I do that? More like, Lord, what would you want me to do? And with what this thing that you've placed in my heart, that just feels so out of my comfort zone? Let’s spend some time talking with the Lord about that. As we prepare hearts for communion. 

On the night, Jesus was betrayed. He took bread and he broke it. And he said, this is my body, which has given for you. So whenever you eat this bread, do it in remembrance of me. And then after the dinner, he took a cup and he said, this is the blood of the covenant shed for you. So whenever you drink this cup, do so in remembrance of me, Let's pray, Lord. I know that you've laid stuff in my heart about what it looks like to be people of mishpat, or I know for a lot of us in this room and watching online, you have laid stuff on our heart to be people of mishpat and yet Lord, for lots of different reasons, we've been afraid to step into it. And so God personally, I just want to say, I'm sorry.  I know this to be true, that your Holy spirit doesn't change the mission because I'm scared. So I ask for courage and Lord, thank you for your grace that keeps refusing to give up on us. May we be people who live that kind of grace in life, in the lives of the people around us in Jesus name? Amen. 

Let's stand and sing one more song. So this morning, if you want to pray with somebody, there's going to be prayer partners up here to pray with you. Um, about anything -- we live in a really heavy time, like it's surging COVID cases and confusion and the election and all the different things that are settling out that we're trying to figure out how we're supposed to navigate or how much has to feel about this. And what does it mean for my future, my job and my kids' education and staying home and going to school and getting another COVID test again, you know, like what, what, gosh, there's just so much going on. If you need prayer with anybody, for any reason, they’ll be up here to pray with you, um, to do that. But I would encourage you. Don't leave here today discouraged. God has always been sovereign. He will continue to be sovereign. He is in control. He has got this and we can rest in his grace knowing that today doesn't tell the whole story because he lives, I can face tomorrow.  And that should bring us hope. That should bring us hope because he's in the business of taking care of problems before we can even conceive of them. And so to him who is able to do immeasurably more than we could ever think, or imagine to him be the glory forever and ever, and ever. Amen. Thanks for coming. Have a great week.