You guys need to pray for me, I work with that guy, okay? He is our pastor in Conklin and Tim Sullivan, we joke because we talk about Tim's gym. There's probably a dozen people at church. When he goes to the gym, he invites them to church and they see how he's different. And so there's like a dozen people from Tim's gym, which is not really his gym, that are involved in our church. And he sounds just like that when he sings, no he doesn't. You don't want to hear him sing. But actually he probably has a great voice. We're doing this series summer mixtape and just as we're starting out, I wanted to just introduce and he already did it a little bit, but Eric Powers is our new Montrose administrator just helping me out here at our campus, and we're just glad. And his beautiful wife, Amy, has with him there. And then also last Sunday in Tunkannock, some of you know Kevin Ozzilins used to live in Montrose, now he lives south of Tunkannock in Falls, but he was voted as the associate pastor of our Tunkannock Bridgewater Tunkannock campus. And yeah, so he's there with his family and the vote was 68 to 0 in favor. The last vote we had was Pastor Kevin Stiles in Hancock, and his vote was also in Halsted, sorry, where did I say Hancock? Yeah, not Hancock. In Halsted his vote was also unanimous and to have multiple unanimous votes, I mean we're, you know, a group of Christians like this, we can't even agree on lunch, you know, let alone. And so it's just really neat to see what God has been doing in their lives. And I want to kind of transition here to something super serious, many of you know there's an assassination attempt on ex-President Donald Trump yesterday in Butler, Pennsylvania. And that's not really that far from here. And what I wanted to do actually is to read an excerpt from Ronald Reagan's private diary that he wrote 12 days after he was shot. That's what I thought yesterday when Donald Trump, you know, the shot was fired. I guess it just nicked his ear, killed another man in the crowd. And then the shooter was taken out by Secret Service. But here's what Ronald Reagan wrote in his diary. And you know, I don't know if this became public only after Ronald Reagan died. But he said this, "Getting shot hurts. Still, my fear was growing because no matter how hard I tried to breathe, it seemed I was getting less and less air. I focused on this tiled ceiling and prayed, but I realized I couldn't ask for God's help while at the same time I felt hatred for the mixed up young man who'd shot me." Isn't that the meaning of the lost sheep where all God's children and therefore equally beloved by him? I began to pray for his soul and that he would find his way back to the fold. And then he closes, he says, "Whatever happens now, I owe my life to God and I will try to serve him in every way I can." I'm pretty sure that that brush with death and getting hit in the chest and a bullet lodged in his lungs, I'm pretty sure that changed Ronald Reagan's life. And things like this, last Sunday we talked about how God is in control of who's in control. Not only that, God's in control of everything. And we are in a war, but not the kind of war that most people think. We are in a spiritual conflict and our weapons are not with guns and this is the front lines of the spiritual conflict we're in because it's about changing people's hearts and lives. And that's what God has called us to do. Not called us to go and, "Well, we're going to make this even," right? And I'm going to take things into my own hands, but we're called to forgive and we're called to love and you know what? That's a lot harder and requires more courage than just taking justice into our own hands and doing what we want to who we think is bad. And so I want to just begin our service. We're going to talk about a small book of the Bible that is really kind of separated from anything of this, but let's just begin just praying for both of our presidents and praying for our present president and our ex-president and praying for our country. Heavenly Father, I just thank you that we can trust you. Lord in a world that seems increasingly chaotic and crazy and violent and evil, God, we know that you're in control and you have a plan. We just sang about that, like you have good plans for us. In the deserts and in the gardens, we can praise you and thank you and trust you. God help us to do that and we pray for our country. God we pray for President Biden that you would help him to do what is right, that you would help him to follow you and make good and wise decisions. And Lord we pray for President Trump that you would help him to do what's right and not to seek his own will, but to seek your will. And God we pray for our country and the division that's in it. And Lord we pray for unity, but not unity for unity's sake. God we pray for unity under the trust and under the flag of Jesus Christ. And Lord help us to follow you, no matter what anybody else does, Lord help us to trust you and follow and obey you. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. Alright, so summer mixtape basically, for those of you who are under 30 years of age, it means it's a Spotify favorite playlist, okay. Back in the day we had to put the one tape in here and the other tape in there and then you would record your favorite song and then you fast forward it through all the boring slow songs. And then get the next good song and then pop it out and put another tape in and then you could have that mix tape that you could listen to all your favorites through the summer. And so this series essentially is just a silly name for basically we're going to look at three really short books of the Bible. The two shortest books of the Bible, second John and third John, we'll look at those next week and in a couple weeks. And then today we're looking at the fifth shortest book in the Bible, Jude. And in the beginning of Jude, Jude introduces himself and he says that this letter is from Jude, a slave of Jesus Christ and a brother of James. I'm going to read some verses that won't be on the screen this morning and I just want to encourage you that God's Word is important. And if you don't have a copy of God's Word or if the copy of God's Word you have is much harder to understand than the one we're reading from, we have free Bibles on that little black table in the back. If that runs out, we got more at the Welcome Center. If you're online, you can just ask us in the chat, we'll mail you a free Bible. Hancock, you can go out to where you get that popcorn that we don't get here. And the free donuts that we don't get here and they got free Bibles out there as well for you guys. And so Jude starts off and he says, "I am a slave of Jesus Christ and a brother of James." So we know from Matthew 13, verses 55 and 56 that Jesus had four brothers and at least two sisters. Now, some of you may come from traditions that don't believe that and the reason they don't believe that is because they want to protect the sinlessness of Jesus Christ. And that is such an important thing that they really made up some other things to make sure that we all know how sinless Jesus was. And so they say that Mary never had any other kids. She was perpetually a virgin, which if I was Joseph, that would be really sad. Congratulations, you married Mary. Now you're not really married, you're just friends. But anyway, all that to say, the Bible actually says, and we need to follow the Bible, you shouldn't follow what I say, you shouldn't follow what our religious tradition says. My religious tradition says you should never drink any alcohol. That's how I was raised, that's how I grew up. But you know what the Bible doesn't say that? It says don't get drunk. So we shouldn't follow our religious tradition, we shouldn't follow a pastor or some religious leader. We should follow God's word. And God's word says Jude was his brother. And so if I was Jesus's brother, Jude, James, Simon, and the other guy, I forget his name. But if I was Jesus's brother, I would lead with that. I would introduce myself this morning. My name is Bob, I'm a pastor here at this church, and did you know that Jesus was my brother? Yeah, we grew up together, I can tell you stories, man. I'd get in trouble, and I'd say Jesus did it, and Mary would come in, and she was like, "No, he didn't." And I never got away with anything. He was the most annoying brother ever. But that's not how Jude introduces himself. He says, "I am a servant, I am a slave of Jesus Christ." Because he recognized, "I have no special standing with God, Jesus needs, I need Jesus to be my Savior and my Master as well." In fact, he calls him that later, "My Master and Lord Jesus Christ." And I don't even deserve to be called his brother, because I thought he was crazy. In fact, this is one of the reasons I believe that Jesus was the Messiah. He was God in the flesh, because Jesus' family thought he was crazy at one point. Again, Matthew 13, 56-57, you can read it, and they're like, "They wanted to take control of them over him because he's teaching, and he's making people upset, and he's claiming all these crazy things." And they're like, "He's out of his mind." And then after he died and rose from the dead, they were all like, "Oh, yeah, he is God." I tell you what, if my brother rose from the dead, I still wouldn't believe he was God. You know? I don't know how many of you have brothers, but you wouldn't believe either. You'd be like, "No, I remember. He's not sinless." Man, I remember when he lied. I remember when he punched me. No, wait, that was me. I punched him. But Jude was like playing back his childhood, playing back everything, and he's like, "Oh, my. He really was." And then gave his life to Jesus Christ, and so he's writing this short little letter to churches to encourage them to keep following his Lord and Savior and Master Jesus Christ. Dear friends, he says, "I've been eagerly planning to write you about the salvation we all share, but now I find I must write about something else, urging you to defend the faith that God is entrusted once and for all to His holy people." And this word "defend" is used in this ancient time, was used often in two different senses. One was athletic competitions. You defend your crown, you defend your metal, you defend your, you know, you defend on the athletic field. And then the other sense was military. Jude is saying, "We are in a battle, and you need to defend the faith." And not just a faith. We talk about faith in the world today, people just throw out faith and like, "You know, all you have to do is have faith in what?" Right? The Nazis had faith in their plan to build a master race. They never would have killed millions of people if they didn't have great faith that they and what they were doing, but it was faith in something evil. It was faith in the wrong thing. It was faith in a lie. And people today will say, "You need to have faith in yourself." What does that even mean? Well, it means you can do whatever you believe you can do. No, I can't, and you can't either. I wanted to play in a professional basketball player when I was growing up, right? No matter how much faith I had and how much I believed in myself, I never was going to do it because there were just three little things. I couldn't shoot very well. I'm five eight in shoes on a good day, and I wasn't particularly fast. So you put those three things... Other than that, I was in, man. I would have made it. But I mean, I worked so hard in the 30-inch vertical leap and it's not 40. It wasn't good. And so what you have faith in, and he's saying, "Here's what we have faith in." Not some new thing that people made up yesterday. We have faith that God entrusted once and for all to His holy people. We have faith in the God of the Old Testament. We have faith in the God of the New Testament, and that's what we follow. What you believe is important. And he goes on in the next verse, "I say this because some ungodly people have wormed their way into your churches, saying that God's marvelous grace allows us to live in moral lives. The condemnation of such people was recorded long ago for they have denied, or only here it is. Our, my, you and me, our only Master and Lord Jesus Christ. And just people that are, he's saying, are fake Christians, and they're worm their way into the church. You know, here's the first thing we need to recognize is that who you listen to influences what you do. And he's saying there's people that have come in and they say, "You know what? You can do whatever you want. You can look at porn. God will forgive you. You can, you can, you know, be involved in any kind of sexual immorality. God's love, man. You know, you can yell and scream and swear at your family and it'll be okay. Jesus died for you and Judah's saying, "No shall we continue in sin that God's grace may abound. God forbid how can we who are dead to sin live any longer in it?" No, we, we need to, Jesus needs to be our Lord and Master and it's not, it's not this get out of jail free card that allows us to live any way we want. It's a surrender to him and if you actually believe that Jesus is the Lord and you actually believe that he died on the cross to save you, you're going to live differently. And who you listen to influences this and he's, he's warning us like you need to pay attention to who has your attention. I'm telling you 35 minutes of a message on God's word once a week is not going to change your life because you're going to be watching movies and listening to the news and commentary and podcasts and YouTube or TikTok or whatever, you know, or the internet way longer than that and whoever you pay attention to will influence you. You know, every first Sunday of the month we have a jail ministry, if any of you'd like to be involved in that, please contact me and let me know. So this last Sunday I was in jail again, you know, this is one of the things we talk to them a lot about. Why are you here? You made bad decisions. Who did you make those decisions with? And you get out of here and decide I'm just going to try harder to not make bad decisions and you go back with the same people that you made those terrible decisions with and you will be, we will see you again, you know, or, or we won't and it'll be worse. You know, and so we need to, Jude is saying that, he says, there's these people and it's not just those out in the world. He's not saying you need to not listen to the world. We definitely shouldn't listen to people who are not believers that are not following Jesus Christ. He's saying it's in the church. There's Christians are people that claim to be Christians and they're saying live however you want, do whatever you want. I know people traditionally have said these things are wrong and the Bible says they're wrong, but you know, if you just read the Bible, you know, like this, you know, then it's okay. No, it's not. Pay attention to what has your attention. I don't know if you've ever gotten lost, but how many of you have gotten lost following your GPS? Okay? Yeah, it happens, right? And it's gotten better. When I first moved here, it was terrible. Like I remember driving, I think I was going to Kingsley or somewhere and it took me on this logging or quarry road and Becky was like, are you sure? Like I'm like, yeah, I mean, it says, you know, maybe it'll come out and eventually I just had to stop because I have a Kia Optima, like it is not four wheel drive and it was just going to, I was going to get stuck there on a rock, you know, just sitting up in the middle of the road. I'm like, yeah, this must not be right. But here's kind of a little illustration of that, of how we sometimes listen to the wrong person and the wrong thing. Proceed straight. Well, we're over six. Last chance is the owners of Country Club, other side of the lake on the southeast side. Oh, get it. I really don't get it. I thought this would work. Do everything I had with that guy, nothing. It's how it goes sometimes, you know, you lose everything and everything falls apart and eventually you die and no one remembers you. That is a very good point, Dwight. Make a right turn. Wait, wait, wait, wait. No, no, no. It means bear right out there. It said right. Say take a right. No, no, no. No, no, no, look. It means go up to the right, bear right over the bridge and hook up with three or seven. Make a right turn. Maybe it's a shortcut, Dwight. It say go to the right. That mean that. There's a light there. No, this is the light. No, this is the light. No, this is the light. Stop yelling at me. No! It's up here. There's no room here. Remain calm. I have trained for this. Okay. It's in the window. Here we go. Make a hit turn. It's awesome. Look out for me, too. Wake up. Are you okay? Swam for it. I got you. I got you. It's just ridiculous. Actually, someone recently, though, was telling me, "I don't know if you know this." They typed in "tunkanic" into their GPS. There was a "tunkanic" township just over an hour southeast of "tunkanic." And they were just driving along and they're like, "Boy, this is farther than I thought it would be," and did not wind up where they wanted to be. And here's the thing about GPS and attention to just who influences what you do. The worst lies are the ones that are mostly true. So "tunkanic PA." It led me the wrong way because it led you to "tunkanic" township PA. It was so close, but not quite right, or I don't know if you've ever typed in the right number address, the right street address. You misspell the wrong town and the right state. And then you wind up in the wrong direction because it's leading you astray, because it's mostly true. So we really need to—this is why God's Word is so important. You need to read God's Word on your own. It's hard to understand sometimes. That doesn't mean we should give up because this points us true north. This helps us know what we should be doing, how we should be living, and we need to pay attention to what God's Word says. And if somebody else says different, don't listen to them. So who you listen to influences what you do, and he's talking about this is people that have warmed their way into the churches. If you were the devil, where would you go on Sunday? You'd go to church, man. What position would you occupy on Sunday if you could? Pastor. In fact, reading this, he's talking about how these leaders in your church, it really is a warning to me, you know, because who were the worst enemies of Jesus Christ when he was on the earth, Pharisees who were the religious leaders. And it's interesting. The Sadducees, they've cooperated with the Pharisees to kill Jesus. The Sadducees were the religious liberals. The Pharisees were the religious conservatives. And the conservatives were the ones who were the most angry at Jesus and the most after him. You know, and so I have to, you know, I got, that's a good warning for me, like I better make sure that I'm following and I'm doing what God wants me to do, that I'm a faithful shepherd and not a faithless one. And Jude is warning against that and just following the wrong path. So he goes on and he says, I want to remind you though, you already know these things that Jesus first rescued the nation of Israel from Egypt, but later he destroyed those who did not remain faithful. So he's saying, you know what? We need to follow God's word. We need to follow Jesus Christ, our only Lord and Savior. We need to not take advantage of his grace that he's given and his love, but we need to recognize that God judges everyone. And so he's going to list off three quick examples of God's judgment and the first one is how God judged Israel after they left Egypt. There is a census they did in Numbers 1, verses 45 and 46, where they numbered all the men who were 20 years old and older, and they came up with over 603,000 men. And then in addition to that, right, there's women and there's children, huge group leaving Egypt. They get to the new land and the Israelites are like, it's too hard, they're too big, it's too scary. We don't want to go into the land. And so God judges them. You know what God's worst judgment is on people? He gives them what they want. And so he says, okay, you don't want to go into the land, you won't go into the land. And then they're like, whoa, wait, wait, wait, no, you mean we're going to stay here in the desert? No, we don't want that either. And so then they try to go in and they're defeated and then they wander in the wilderness for 40 years. And he destroyed those who did not remain faithful, only Caleb and Joshua survived. That means over 603,000 men died over the next 40-year period of time. And there was not a single man over the age of 60 when they entered the land except for Caleb and Joshua. That equals 42 funerals every single day. I mean, God's judgment, and that's not counting all the women. We don't know if women over 60 were allowed to go in because of the leadership of men. And so we don't know if all the women over 60 were judged by God and killed as well. But that's a lot of hundreds of thousands of people. God is serious about righteousness and judgment. Sin isn't harmful because it's forbidden. It's forbidden because it's harmful. I've said this before, I'll say it over and over again. A lot of times we think that it's like God is up there in heaven and he's just beating me because I did what he told me not to. God doesn't have to beat you. Sin brings its own consequences. You jump off of a cliff and there's incredible freedom. The wind in your face feels nice and cool. You can do whatever you want with your body. It's so fun. And then you hit the ground. And nobody says, "Yeah, boy, God judge that guy." Nobody's mad at God for creating gravity. Gravity. God's terrible judgment on us. No, gravity allows us to survive on this planet. If there were gravity, we'd all be flowed out into there'd be no atmosphere. We'd all die. Gravity's a good thing, but there are consequences to disobeying gravity. And it's the same morally. When we disobey God, Romans 1 talks about this. It talks about God's judgment on earth and he says, "What does it say?" It says, "God gave them over to what they want." It says, "And so they didn't obey God and they didn't recognize God as who He was and they went after other things and so what did God do? God let them have what they want." And then it got worse and they were even more sinful and how did God judge them? Well, He let them have what they want. And I think we see that judgment on America today. He's just letting us have what we want, do what we want, society's breaking down, children are suffering the most like there's just an increasing sin in our country. And it's not good. And the more people are like, "I am so free!" And yet then they're so addicted and that doesn't sound like freedom. Goes on and he says, "And I remind you of the angels who did not stay within the limits of authority God gave them but left the place where they belong. God kept them securely, chained in prisons of darkness waiting for the great day of judgment." This is one of the verses. There's other verses also where the Archangel Michael is disputing the body of Moses with Satan. And you're just like, "What is that all about?" And all I got to say is there's a lot going on in this world that we have no idea is going on. Like, there is a spiritual conflict between angels and demons and we just have no idea. And but the point of this is he's saying, "God judges everyone." I don't care if you're an archangel. Like God will judge you as well. And don't forget Sodom and Gomorrah and they're neighboring towns which are filled with immorality and every kind of sexual perversion, these cities were destroyed by fire and serve as a warning of the eternal fire of God's judgment. There's two things that I think two contradictory reactions we have to this world we're in and how God operates it. On the one side, people are mad at God for all the evil he allows. You're like, "How can there be a God?" Many Christians, crisis of faith, something terrible happens in your life and you're like, "How can God be real?" to allow this terrible thing to happen, this hurt, this evil, right? To my kids or to to to my friend and we're like, "Where is God? Where is his judgment? Where is his justice?" But then so many people are also saying that God would send people to hell for eternity for that, that's like overboard. That's too much. I don't think that's right. How can you follow a God who would send people to hell? Boy, that's a terrible God. Which do you want? Do you want God's justice or do you want? It's contradictory, but here's what's going on. It's because deep in all of our hearts, we want to be God. And we're saying, "God, that's not the way I would have done it. I would have judged them now." And then God says, "Well, I will judge them later. Oh, but not that way, God." And we think God should answer to us. And if we don't understand what God is doing, then clearly God is mentally handicapped because I got it all figured out. I'm smarter than God. I know better than God. And so many people, instead of trusting in God's way, we get mad at God for not doing it our way. And here Jude is saying, "You know what? You can trust that God's going to do the right thing and He's going to bring about justice." In fact, this is really important. I don't think one of the things that makes us the most angry at God, if someone's angry at God, I almost guarantee you, it's because of this. People are most angry at God when God doesn't obey me. In fact, some people have a crisis of faith about prayer because I told God what He needed to do in my prayer and He didn't obey me. Prayer doesn't work. That's not real. Because if He was, He would have obeyed me. I've told you this story many times. This is maybe why God did this. But Becky and I, we had given money toward a thing of curves for cancer, whatever. And she won a basket. And it had fruit and all sorts of stuff in this basket and a lottery ticket. I've never bought a lottery ticket. And so we told God, "God, this is your chance." We are never going to do that. But if you want us to win the lottery, you can have us win the lottery. We parade over that ticket together and we scratch it off and we won $2. I did not know they had lottery tickets of that small amount that you could win. The ticket itself cost $2. I mean, like that would have been really a burden. If the ticket cost $3 and you win too, you'll be like, "Oh, geez." But here's the thing, if you, there's an old pastor's story about a man with a crippled hand that didn't work and he said, "God, please make my one hand like the other." And then immediately, right? And there's this thing where we sometimes think God is some trickster genie up in heaven. And Christian, good Christian people will say this. They'll say like, "Oh, I didn't pray specifically enough. I should have prayed this because God answered the prayer, but it wasn't really what I was thinking. No, God's not like that. If you pray for something, you know, Becky and I, he knew what we meant. We wanted millions of dollars, but you know what? If he knows, you win millions of dollars and your son will overdose on drugs. He's not going to give you a million dollars. He will do what's good for you. And unfortunately, what's good for us is often what's good for us in the long run. And we don't see how it's good for us and we don't understand. And but we can trust God that His way is the best way. And this is a great thing about prayer. You can pray and ask God for anything. And you don't even have to tack on at the end of your prayer that I will be done not mine. You know, you can just pray for anything because if it's bad, if you're praying for a scorpion and you don't know it, he's not going to give you a scorpion. He's a good God. He's a good father. If I'm a good father and my kid asked me for a viper, like in his five and I was 18, I might give him one, you know, it's responsible enough and maybe, you know, but no, no, like if you're a little kid, ask for a viper, like I think it'd be cool. You won't give it to him. I don't care how much he cries and pleads, you're like, no. And that's the kind of God we have and we can trust him with everything that's going wrong with the world that his way is the best. I'm going to skip ahead a few verses, Jude chapter 12, I mean, Jude verse 12, "When these people eat with you in your fellowship meals, commemorating the Lord's love." So we have, when we celebrate communion or if you're from another tradition and you have mass, it's always this tiny little cracker and this tiny little sip of wine or grape juice. Back then, they'd have a whole meal, they'd eat it an entire meal and they would, and many times, it seems like every time they ate with other believers, you know, they would do this. They would take bread and break it and say, "This is his body which is for you," and they would take wine and say, "This is his blood that was for you," and so they'd have these meals together, fellowship meals, and he's saying, "They're these people who have shipwrecked the faith and who are enemies of God, they're sitting right next to you. They're like dangerous reefs that can shipwreck you. They're like shameless shepherds who care only for themselves. So how do you know if you're a fake Christian or not? And he explains right here, "It's by their fruit. Are you a shepherd if you never take care of sheep?" And you only take care of yourself, "No, you're not a shepherd." And he goes on the second half of the verse, "They're like clouds blowing over the land without giving any rain. Are you a rain cloud if you never give rain?" No, you're a cloud, but you're not a rain cloud. They're like trees and autumn that are doubly dead, for they bear no fruit and been pulled up by the roots. Are you a fruit tree if you never give fruit? No. Are you a Christian if you don't follow Christ? No. And this is important because what you believe determines how you behave and then how you behave shows what you believe. Jeremiah, I think it's chapter 17 verse 9, it says, "The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond care who can understand it. We can fool ourselves into what we really believe because our heart is so deceitful. But here's how you know what you actually believe, how do you behave?" And if you say, "Man, I believe prayer changes things and it's powerful but you don't take time to pray," then your behavior shows what you really believe and you really believe prayer is not really a big deal. And just for any of you who think prayer is a big deal, 8 o'clock every Sunday morning we pray in the cafe room until about 8.45, you are all invited. And I am waiting for the day that that room will not be big enough, but I'm still waiting. But what do you really believe? Just look at your actions and you'll know. If you say, "I love my family," but you curse and swear at them and are selfish and just make them serve your needs and you're not about what they want, you don't love your family. I don't care how many times you say you love your family. You don't love them because your behavior will show you what you actually believe. And Jude talks about this all throughout this chapter, this short letter. These people are grumblers and complainers, living only to satisfy their desires. They brag loudly about themselves and they flatter others to get what they want. And so if you don't want to be a fake Christian, just do the opposite of what fake Christians do. What's the opposite of grumbling and complaining? Gratitude, thankfulness, that's why we sing every Sunday morning, songs of gratitude and thankfulness. This is how people follow Jesus live. I was in prison this last Sunday, there was a woman in the prison and I won't mention her name, but we've seen her change over a period of months. She accepted Christ as her Savior several months ago and she's just a different woman. I said to her this last Sunday, I said, "You are more joyful than most of the people I know that are on the outside." And her response was, she says, "It's coming," she said, "Mary Alice Holly was here this morning and did Bible study with her. I was so excited to go. It's so awesome to study God's Word, to be with Christians. And you guys were coming tonight and I so look forward to this. And this is just so awesome to be together, to pray together, to our kids ministry. The focus for the week is help others find joy. The joy of the Lord is our strength. This is a sign of followers of Jesus and I know Christians struggle with depression. Okay? I'm not saying, you know, if you're depressed, you should be even more depressed because you're not joyful and you're not a real Christian. No, I'm not saying that. I'm just saying we need to focus, even when you're depressed, especially when you're depressed. You're saying, "What can I thank God for? How can I be grateful? Let me write this down. I don't feel it, but I know it in my mind." And then living only to satisfy their desires, bragging loudly about themselves, flattering others to get what they want. The opposite of satisfying your desires and trying to get what you want is helping other people get what they want and need. And in two weeks, we're going to do that. We're going to meet here at nine o'clock, if you're in Hancock, you're going to meet, I forget when, they'll tell you. And then if you're part of our new Elk Lake, Springville, Dimmick congregation that we're going to start, you're going to meet, I think it's at 9.30 at the Pavilion at the Elk Lake School, back behind the high school there, but we're going to meet together in two weeks and I'm not going to preach and we're not going to sing any songs. We're going to get a really cool t-shirt like this. You too can look like me. And then we're going to go out and serve the community. There's 20 jobs out in the lobby that you can sign up for to serve on that Sunday. And then we'll come back here between 11 and 1 and have lunch. It's a long lunch like that because some of you will be done and you'll be here at 11. Those of you are going to work till like 12.45 and you'll squeak in at 12.59 because you just wanted to get it done or you just wanted to do more and then you'll have lunch at 1. But that's the plan and you can, lots of different projects that we've planned. We need a lot of project leaders and there's sign-ups for that as well. If you're handy and you look at that project and you're like, I could head that up, then do that. Kids are welcome. We have Woodlands, which is preschool and nursery here if you want to drop your kid off. Many parents will bring their kid with them. Most of these projects are family friendly. You know, we're not like dropping power lines or anything like that. So you can bring your kids with you because this is how we fight. Do you need to vote? Yes. More important than that. We need to change people's hearts. How do you do that? How do you care about Jesus until they see how much Jesus cares about them through your life? And we need to do that. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, I just thank you for your word and God thank you for Jesus Christ showing us how to love those that hate and how to give his life for others. God help us to model that and to follow that, that we would give our lives for others as well, that we would serve you, God, that this would be a church that is just a beacon of Jesus Christ to this world. God, we pray this in Jesus' name, amen. If you need prayer, come forward as we close the song and we'll pray with you.
