Killing Partiality

Hello, everyone. How you doing this morning? Yeah! Give it up for Jesus! Thank you for bearing with us if you're online.

We're so glad that you're with us today. We are still trying to figure out our lights and our video and all that, so it's a little bit of a rough run this morning. So if you can't see us and it's a little more shadowy, it will be better in the weeks to come. So thank you so much for being patient with us and worshiping with us there in your living room and wherever you are today. So we are excited to let you know right here, right here, we are at MOCA.

We are meeting here at MOCA and we are excited to have you here with us next week for our first service back together. It will be a family service. We won't be doing children's ministry and I realize that some of you won't come out quite yet, but we'll provide everything we possibly can for you to be here with us and a part of this. Every type of precaution we can put together, sanitation, whatever it takes, even have something a little special for your children even though they will be here with us. It will be a condensed service for the first couple of weeks at least and then we'll be looking at it every few weeks and heading back to normal, hopefully very, very, very soon.

But I'm glad to be with you today. It's live and it's been a while since I've been live. I've been pre-recording and things like that, so it's really good to have an audience to actually speak to today. So we're thankful for that. So we're thankful for that.

So we are in a series called A New Normal and if you would allow me for a minute to share a few things with you. We're completing this series this week. This will be the last installment and then we'll launch into Father's Day next week. But as we've been going through this, we've been talking about a new normal that we're all kind of experiencing now. Not the type of new normal that you're thinking that we need to be heading towards.

Here's the thing. Let me just pull back for a second. A lot of you are annoyed with the new normal, right? It's not a great new normal for many of you. But the new normal we're looking at is a different type of new normal.

It's a new normal that we want to head into, that we want to be the normal. And it's a normal that God calls us to. A new normal that God calls us to. In fact, in 1 Thessalonians 5.23, it says, May God Himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through and may your whole spirit, soul, and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.

So in week one, we talked about spirit, that our spirit has to be right before anything else. If our spirit isn't right, nothing else sets up. Week two, we talked about our emotions. That's our soul. That's our heart.

That's our personality and how to have healthy emotions. We gave you some things there. You can go back and listen to that. Week three, we talked about I'm not my own body, right? We are not our own.

In fact, when we become believers, we are God's. Our body is God's. And then in week four, last week, we talked about temptation. It was kind of a part two to the body. You know, how do we fight temptation?

How do we fight these fleshly desires we have? And I gave you quite a few examples of what to do and how to do that and how to counteract when those temptations come. And you can go back and catch up on all of those online and catch up with us. But this week, I want to talk about overcoming a sin that's often overlooked. And after the recent events that's happened, it's a hard time for a lot of people.

And after we've lost George Floyd, the way we lost George, and Ahmaud Arbery, another young man that was lost, unfortunately, just from bad judgment and hate and anger or whatever we want to call it. It's caused a lot of tension. And there's a lot of things going on right now. There's a lot of people that are bickering, complaining, they're angry, they're frustrated. And I thought, you know, I sat back for a while and I took it in.

I talked to some of my African-American friends and other people and just prayed with them and just wanted to seek God for what to say to our church and what to say to our community about this. And I can tell you there's been a lot of crying. There's been a lot of emotional things happening. There's been a lot of hard conversations between and among pastors about what all this is and how can we make it better and how can we really understand each other. And I wanted to share with you a little bit of my experience with things like this, with systemic racism and how it is a real issue today because I think it's easy for us to gloss over it, especially me as a white pastor, to forget that it is really an issue and it absolutely is an issue.

And one example is a lot of you know that I graduated from Appalachian State University, but I actually went to a small Christian college my freshman year called Emanuel College in North Georgia. And I had an African-American roommate, Derwin Ramey. If he's watching right now, I want to say hey to you. I want to shout out to you, man. I hope you're doing well.

And I've talked to him about it or had chat conversations even with him. We've been kind of going back and forth. And he allowed me to share his story and my story as it pertains to the current situation. But in this small North Georgia town, Derwin was... And let me just tell you a little bit about Derwin.

He's a pastor. He loves the Lord. His heart is so connected to God. I mean, I've learned a lot from him. Very clean-cut guy.

He wore a sweater vest. You know, he was my sweater vest roommate, you know. He'd wake me up every morning with the song, How Great Thou Art. You know, it'd be blasting on the radio, waking me up at 6 o'clock in the morning, praising God. And he did it on purpose.

I know what he was trying to do, trying to get me out of bed. But he often had a lot of interactions in the area. And he told me about what was going on. And at first, I refused to believe it, you know. Like, racism, that's kind of a thing in the past.

I was raised in a family that was very culturally aware. And a lot of my friends growing up, Latinos, blacks, you know, it just wasn't... It was just normal for you to have those friendships. And, in fact, my parents thought I would end up marrying somebody of another nationality. Because I was just so culturally, you know, aware.

And there was a lot of friendships I had. It just wasn't a thing for me. But Derwin, when me and Derwin were together in college, he talked a lot about some of the things that were happening. And the things I needed to be aware of. And, but from personal experience, I can tell you, Derwin was always pulled over by the cops.

He had this Cadillac. It was actually a nice, clean Cadillac. And he was a nice-dressed man and would do nothing wrong, obviously. But the cops just wouldn't leave him alone in this little town. They'd just pull him over for no reason at all.

Search his car. It was a license plate, you know, out of date, they thought, or whatever. And it just always seemed to be happening to him. And I thought, Derwin, what are you doing to attract these cops? He says, it's just because I'm black, man.

It really is that. I said, it can't be that. I mean, why would it be that? I don't know what's going on. And he's like, I'm telling you, Leon, it is a real issue.

And sure enough, it happened. It happened with me in the car, it happened with my cousin in the car one time, just pulled off on the side of the road, went through his car and everything, and we just could not believe it. I said, I just can't believe this is happening. You know, why are they doing this? It's almost like they kind of pegged him as a troublemaker in the town because it was a very wide, it was a very southern community, and the worst experience I ever had with Derwin was, and this kind of just pushed it over the edge, I guess, of me being aware of what's going on and really wanting to challenge some of these systemic issues.

We were in my hometown of Goldsboro, North Carolina, and he was, he came home with me one weekend from college, and he was staying with me. We went and met one of my best friends. We stopped by his house, and his mother and father, he was still living with his mother and father at the time, which was actually his stepmother. And we walked into the house, and we were drinking sweet tea and chatting, and his stepmother came home, and she was very quiet. She walked through the room, and Derwin kind of looked over at me and says, hey man, I think we should go.

And I said, why? What's going on? And as I was taking the glasses, we got through with her glasses, we were taking it up to the sink, and she comes to the kitchen, and she grabs the glass and walks up to the door and throws the glass out of the window or out of the doorway and through the yard and out into the grass. And I was just shocked, and she looked directly at me and says, you should know better, as if I should know better. And I thought, wow, I just didn't know.

And Derwin just shared with me just all those things that he had experienced in his life that were very similar to that, that it is really still an issue, that we haven't moved past it, and it needs to be talked about. But what Derwin also taught me, and brother, you taught me this, is that grace and mercy and love, regardless of how people treat you, is more important. You taught me that, he taught me that, that you can love people regardless of how they think of you. Even if the hate is spewed at you, you can still love people. And one thing, Derwin never retaliated.

He never, he never got mad. He never, he got upset, obviously, about what was going on, but he knew how to respond, and he knew how to love, and he would love those who, even who were racist or prejudiced or whatever they were. And it was a lesson to me that, man, you know, grace can shine through even when we're going, when the most awful things can happen to us. When things that are pure evil, that come from, from the pits of hell, if we want to say that, we, we can, we can respond with love, and grace, and power, and we can be angry in the right ways, not angry in the wrong ways. And we, and as Christians, and as believers, there's a way we respond that we don't do as the rest of the world.

So I want to talk a little bit about the sin of partiality. It's talked about in the Bible, it's something that God really hates. And how, as Christians, do we respond to this, and how do we look at this? The, the sin of partiality is this, here's a definition of partiality. It's, it's a, it's a sin that's often overlooked, but it's showing favoritism and bias towards some people, and showing prejudice and bias against others, other people.

Now, let me just distinguish this, because a lot of people kind of use prejudice and racism kind of interchangeably, as if they're the same thing, but they're not. They're not. They're of the same family, and prejudice is kind of the window that opens, but let me just give you a clear definition. Prejudice, and I like this definition that I looked up here, it says, A preconceived opinion of another, not based on reason or experience. Some, but not all, are racial in nature and have racist outcomes, unlikely to impact people as negatively as racism.

It is unlikely to impact people as negatively as racism. And then, but then you have racism, which racism refers to prejudice or discrimination against individuals or groups based on beliefs about one's own race as superior. And that's happening. Or that one race has greater capabilities or attributes over another. Belief that a race is equated with a particular trait or belief that some races are superior.

And that's where slavery comes from, right? That people thought that they could overpower people. So it's important not to get those mixed up when we talk about prejudice and racism that they, although they're cousins, they're not the exact same thing. It's the second level. It's another level of prejudice.

But the point is, and I wanted to clear that up just to say this, everything falls under this idea of partiality. That God doesn't like any of it. He actually hates all of it, even the smallest things. And some of you here today are probably like, well, pastor, I'm not prejudiced. And I'm much less, I'm, you know, much more racist.

There's no way, you know, we're not racist people. But let me just ask you this. Have you ever judged anybody based on their outward appearance by seeing them for the first time? When somebody walks into a room and they have their bodies covered head and toe with tattoos, what's your first thought, probably, about that person? Or their hair's a little different?

Or their clothes smell? Or they're too big or they're too small or too fat or too skinny? We make prejudgments about those people. Sometimes we make judgments about younger people. We make judgments about older people.

We make judgments about religion, right? Based on people's religious backgrounds. We make judgments on whether somebody makes more money or less money. And we have all these subtle biases in our hearts. So I think it's important for us to go all the way back to the root of what God is talking about here.

In Scripture, in 2 Chronicles 19, he says this, Fear the Lord and judge with integrity. For the Lord our God does not tolerate perverted justice, partiality, or the taking of bribes. And one version even says partiality or corruption. That God does not handle corruption. He does not like it.

He does not like partiality. He doesn't like injustice. He hates it. And we need to be people who share the heart of God. In fact, let's just roll to James, if you have your Bibles, if you'll turn to James 2, 1 through 9.

And it says this, My brothers and sisters, as believers in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ, never show partiality. There it is again. Suppose someone comes to your church meeting. I love this version because it kind of puts us in our setting, right? Comes to your church meeting wearing expensive clothes and jewelry.

And a poor person also comes in wearing shabby worn out clothes. If you show special attention to the person wearing fine clothes and say, Let me give you the best seat. But say to the poor person, you stand in the back of the room in the floor over there. Then you have shown discrimination and segregation. And you've segregated God's children by your evil, evil judgment.

Now listen to me, brothers and sisters. God has chosen the poor of this world to be rich in faith and to inherit the kingdom he's promised for those who love him. Yet, you disrespect low-income people. Because that's what was happening in that day. They were judging each other by their economic status.

It says, Why don't you realize that people richer than you have taken advantage of you? So they were taking advantage of him. Anyway, they have more money than you to sue you in court and they often misuse the noble name of Jesus to whom you belong. Remember and always keep the royal law of scripture which is, and this is it, love your neighbor as yourself. And if you do that, you'll always do the right thing.

But anytime you show partiality or prejudice, you sin and break God's law. So why does God hate prejudice, racism, discrimination, partiality? I'm going to give you four things real quick here. First of all, it questions God's creation. We become God ourselves when we make decisions about who is great and who's not, or who's better and who's not.

Very dangerous place to be. God the creator of the world who created mankind. The last time I looked at scripture, men was the magnum opus. He was the crown jewel of God's creation. Amen?

He made all mankind. And when we question the dignity of people, and then we question God's design for people, we are ultimately telling God that he doesn't know what he's doing. And we don't trust him for what he's done. That he isn't good at what he's done. And we need to step in.

It's men taking or stepping in the place of God. And see, there's nothing wrong with differences. They're just differences. God is cool that way because he makes things in different ways. I think about the floor in my home.

We put in a new floor just recently, and there's a lot of different colors there. There's light colors and dark colors colors and middle colors, and they come together. And at first, when I looked at it on the picture, I wasn't sure how it would look in our house. But when I actually saw it in person, when you have those pieces together and how they contrast, it's beautiful. It looks great.

It makes our house look like a whole different place. It's beautiful. And that's what God does with his creation. He puts us together. We're a blend of different colors and different personalities and different shapes and different sizes and different economic statuses.

They bring it. He brings us together for this beautiful collage, this beautiful artwork. And that's what the church is. And how boring the world would be if everybody was like you or everybody was like me. Thank God there's different type of people in the world.

And that's how God creates the world and creates us. And that was his plan from the very beginning. Acts 17 says this, from one man, Adam, God made every nation of man, that they should inhabit the whole earth and be determined. And he determined the sets, the time set for them and the exact places where they should live. 1 Corinthians 4-7 says this, who says you are better than others, okay?

And what do you have that was not given to you by God? And if it was given to you, why do you brag as if you did not receive it as a gift? So it's a gift from God. Everything. See, we step in the way of God and his creation.

We question his creation. We questioned his mandate. We questioned mankind, the very beauty of what he created. When we look at somebody else, we should see his creation and the beauty of it. Secondly, it's a sign of ignorance.

Just ignorant. It reveals our foolishness. It basically means we don't know what we're talking about. We don't have a clue what God's up to. We're ignorant.

I love how 1 John 2-11 says that whoever hates his brother, strong words there, is in the darkness and walks around in the darkness. He does not know where he is going because the darkness has blinded him. Walking around in darkness. But James says this in chapter 3 verse 17, true wisdom from above is pure, peaceful, gentle, friendly, full of compassion, and is free from prejudice and hypocrisy. So that's my challenge to you, perhaps.

When we're faced with things like this, how are we operating? Are we walking with hate? Are we hating our brother? Whatever side of the house you're on, let me just be bold here, whether you have a hate for police officers right now, or whether you have a hate for people of color, or whatever it might be, you need to ask yourself this question. Are you walking peaceful and gentle and friendly and full of compassion?

Because that's what God calls us to be and do. Are we allowing our passions to consume us and our anger to consume us and turn into hate and turn into divisiveness? This is how the Christians walk out. Conflict and come up with solutions and talk things out. Peace.

See, that's what my brother Derwin reminds me of. When I think of peaceful, I think of that. I think of gentle, I think of him. When I think of friendly to those who actually have hated and despised him and treated him wrong, I see the friendliness that he represents as he comes out. A perfect example.

We should all be those types of people when we're faced with diversity and we're faced with divisiveness and prejudice. Three, it defies the great commandment. It defies the great commandment. Here's what Galatians says, the entire law is summed up in this one commandment, love your neighbor as yourself. But if instead of showing love, you attack and tear each other apart, watch out, you will destroy yourself.

See, we are living in a time of anger and division and partisanship and tearing each other apart. And sometimes this happens to help us step back and think about what's going on. And sometimes it has to happen, but man, it gets really, really evil really, really quick, especially with social media and things like that. The things that are happening, man, right now, I threw something up online the other day. I said, you know what, I'm going to tell everybody I just love them.

So I threw up something. I love you guys. I just want to let everybody know I love you because I want to respond with love when the hate is out there. And that's the great commandment, to love each other, to love your neighbor as yourself. He said all the commandments are summed up in that one commandment.

It's the most important commandment of them all, is to love your neighbor as yourself. Are we loving each other? Look, they're looking at the church. They're looking how the church reacts. Are we loving each other as brothers and sisters in Christ?

Are we loving the world regardless of what they say about us? That shows true Christ in us. That shows who God is. And that's how we need to be operating. And in fact, going back to the scripture I opened up with, you will be doing the right thing if you obey the law of the kingdom, which is love your neighbor as yourself.

The question is, are we loving our neighbors regardless as ourselves? Just coming together and loving them. The fourth thing is, it's a serious sin. And that's what we need to recognize. It's not anything we look over.

It is a very serious sin. It's not something that God just says, oh, we can fix that. No, he directly talks about prejudice and these type of sins. And so here's what James verse 9 says in chapter 2, going back to chapter 2. If you treat people according to their outward appearance, you are guilty of what sin.

And God's law condemns you as a lawbreaker. So you're a lawbreaker. You're in danger of being before God one day as a lawbreaker when you participate in this kind of behavior. When you're prejudiced, when you're racist, when we... We treat people differently.

He takes it very seriously. And you go any place in the world, this is a very common sin that's often overlooked. You go to other countries, somebody hates the people in the north and others hate the people in the south. Different colors and shades of skin, even among the same race. They're battling each other and there's caste systems that are in place.

There's one group that doesn't like another group. There's one tribe that doesn't like another tribe. And it's just ongoing. It's always been an issue of sin. See, racism is a problem of sin, not of skin.

It's sin. It's sin. And we need to recognize that any prejudice, any bias, any racism, any partiality that we have in our heart, no matter what level it is, God calls sin. Are we dealing with the sin? Are we dealing with this?

If we're going to live a new normal, we've got to deal with this. Here's Romans 14. It says this, So why do you judge your brother and why do you think you are better than he is? Why? We will all stand before God one day and he will judge us all.

See, the problem is we're raised to distrust. There's like something inside of us that likes to be with people that are like us. We're drawn to people who think like us, act like us, live like us. And we just, as human nature, we tend to go those directions. We naturally feel most comfortable around people that we are like.

It's human nature, really. But how do we root out the sin of partiality? How do we root this out? Now, I'll end with just really one thing. There's a lot of things I could share today, and I just don't have time to share it all.

We can go through a whole series about this. But really what it comes down to is we need to learn to see people as God does. We need to see people through God's glasses, through God's eyesight. To see people the way that God does. 1 Samuel 16, 7 says, The Lord does not look at the things that man look at.

Man looks at the outward appearance, right? But the Lord looks at the heart. He looks at the heart. We've got to look at the heart. See, people can make opinions of others, and studies show this, within 30 seconds.

They can look at the outward appearance of someone and determine, Oh, they must be that type of person. They must do this. That's why first impressions are important. When you go into a job interview, you want to have a good impression, right? You want to walk in with your hair cut, nice clothing on, and you're making those first impressions.

Some of you are seeing me for the first time. You're making opinions about me. I find it interesting that people judge people all the time, based on what they hear, and what they see. I have a southern accent. Some of you, when you've heard my southern accent for the first time, you probably said, well, he's a hick from the south.

How much do you want to... He's not educated, you know? Or that's... Miranda and I have had this talk, because both of us are from the south, and we have to try a little harder, even being southern people, to be appreciated for our academic ability and things like that, because we sometimes can... People can be biased towards people with southern accents.

Just a practical example there. Sweet tea, you know? Sweet heart. You know, you're that kind of guy. Yeah.

Which is great, you know? I love the south for that. But here's what Jesus said. Stop judging by mere appearances and make a right judgment. In John 7, 24.

Jonas was prejudiced, right? Peter was prejudiced. Oh, my goodness. Paul had to call them out for making people honor the Jewish laws and regulations and going back to ceremonial laws. And there's one example when Peter really comes clear with what had happened and what God had done and what Jesus had done and how he had brought all nations together.

And it was under the house of Cornelius, who was a Gentile, who was a non-Jew. Because Jewish people were not allowed to be with non-Jews in that day. It was forbidden. You could call it racist or whatever, but that's basically what it was. They were forbidden to be with people.

But here's what he says to Cornelius' household. He said to them, You yourselves know how unlawful it is for a Jew to associate or to visit anyone of another nation, but God has shown me that I should not call any person common or unclean. And then he goes on in Acts 10, verse 34. If you jump down, it says, I now truly understand that God does not show favoritism, but welcomes those from every nation who fear him and do what is right. That's what God brought.

God looks at people a certain way. We should look at people the way that God looks at people every nation. And there's two little sub points I want to make here. First of all, when we look at people this way, we see heaven. Impartiality reflects heaven.

Because if you don't like differences, if you don't like different colors being together, then you're going to hate heaven. You're not going to like heaven at all. Because heaven is going to be full of all different types of people, shapes and sizes and colors and languages. In fact, Revelation tells us this, After this I looked, and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count from every nation, tribe, people, and language standing before the throne and before the Lamb. That's heaven, guys.

And guess what? The church reflects heaven, right? And we want to be a church, and we desire to be a church, and we have many colors here even in our church, and we want more and more. We want to reflect heaven. We're going to be brothers and sisters.

And the second thing is God's plan to bring people together is the church. That's God's plan to bring people together. All this divisiveness and all this stuff going on in our country and around the world, Well, guess what? The church is the fix to this. The church of Jesus Christ, the bride who was called to go out and make disciples of all nations, baptize them.

He said all nations, right? Baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. All nations. What does all nations mean? All nations.

Every people group, every tribe, every tongue, every language is what we are called to do and to go out and reach those people, to bring them together and to reflect heaven. We are the plan of the church. Look, 1 Corinthians 12, 13 says this, Some of us are Jews and some of us are Gentiles. Some of us have been slaves and some are free. But we have all been baptized into one body through the Spirit and we have all received the same Spirit.

Now all of you together are Christ's body and each of you is a necessary part of it. We are all baptized. The key word is they're baptized under one body, into one body. Did you know that you are needed in the body of Christ? Did you know that?

Here's why. None of us are complete in our ending of ourselves. Secondly, we can't model reconciliation by ourselves. And thirdly, because we find our identity in relationship. So that's the reflection of heaven that's happening now.

And there's a crisis of identity happening in our culture. by the way you're their oldest. Wijrooms up to Win 123, 1 Timothy Evens. To be very感じ, Nobody knows us but Jesus. Knows who they are.

They're confused and they don't know who they are. And God shows us who we are and you can be a part of that body. Here's what Galatians says, he says in chapter 3 verse 26 through 28, so now you are all children of God through faith in Jesus Christ and all who have been united with Christ in baptism have been made like him. So there is no longer Jew or Gentile, slave or free, male or female, for you are all Christians. One, one, one in Jesus Christ.

We are one in Jesus Christ. Colossians 3.11, in this new life, one's nationality or race or education or social position is unimportant. This is the Living Bible, by the way. Great, I just love how it says this, such things mean nothing.

Whether a person has Christ is what matters and he is equally available to, he's equally available to all. And that's what I want to say to you today. If you don't have a relationship with Christ, you are wanted and you are welcomed. You are wanted and you are welcomed. You are wanted as a part of the family of God, no matter your color, no matter your background, no matter if you're rich, no matter if you're poor, no matter if you're sick, no matter if you're healthy.

God wants a relationship with you and we certainly want to bring you into the family because it's under one God. We are together. Every kind of race, every kind of color, and we reflect heaven. So if you would like a relationship with Christ today, maybe you need to commit your life to Christ or maybe you need to recommit your life to Christ. Today's the day to do that.

Come back, come, come home, come back home. And you can do that today just by confessing your sin to God. Confessing your sin, believing that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, that he died on the cross for your sin and that he wants to come into your life and to your heart and transform you. You just have to invite him in. He says, here I am.

I'm at the door. I'm knocking. And if anyone hears my voice and opens, I will come in. And there's nothing magical about this prayer. It's just a commitment to Jesus today.

So would you pray that with me as we end and we close this message in this series? Like that's the most important thing. We're going to throw all the race things and all the cultural things that are happening now. Nothing else matters at this point because heaven is entering in right now. And heaven changes all of that.

Because in heaven we're just children of God. And when you come into a family, when you come in, like I have more in common with my African female woman than I do with a white male that isn't a believer. And we can have a connection with Jesus and you can make that decision today. So if you would just pray that with me right now. Father, in the name of Jesus, I believe that you are the son of God and that you died on the cross for my sin.

Today I commit my life to you. Come into my life. Come into my heart. Change me from the inside out. Make me a new person.

Thank you, God. I surrender my life to you today. I go with you from this day forward. Walking for a real purpose in your name. Amen.

Amen. Thank you so much if you gave your life to Christ. Let's celebrate those who gave their Christ today. I'm going to tell you God has been doing some amazing things right here online and through our church. I've heard a number of testimonies of people giving their lives and other people being affected by our ministry.

So guys, remember to continue to give. Continue to do what you do. You've been really taking care of this church as we've been going through this time. And I want to, we're still doing Elevate 2020. We're giving 20% of everything that we bring in through the Elevate campaign to do cancer research for children.

So don't forget about that. But what you're doing is making it possible for people to come to Jesus. And we're so thankful for that. And we celebrate that today. If you did give your life to Christ, please connect with us somehow.

On our website, you can do that. Or you can, you can, you can text us. You can, you can connect with our church center app. There's lots of ways to connect with us in our connect section. And we want to hear from you.

You can fill out an online connection card. We've got that available for you on our church center app as well. You can connect with us that way. But we love you. And we want to help you take the next steps.

Again, next week, we are together again, family service. But we're going to have an amazing time. Our new time at 10 o'clock a.m. Don't be late.

Be early. Be ready. Because we're going to worship Jesus Christ. Even if it's a little different, it's going to be the same because we're under one body under Jesus Christ. And we look, we're excited to have you here today.

So yo guys, have a great day. Thank you for being here. Be blessed.