Catch The Fire Church Raleigh
Embrace Your City | Justin Rife
This week we heard from Justin Rife, our Community Pastor, on the importance of embracing the city! As believers, we have a mission to go out into our local communities to bring the good news of redemption through Jesus Christ. The world is growing with anticipation for us to go. Are we willing to be people of mercy in cities that don't deserve mercy? Are we willing to party when the prodigals come home instead of blame and shame? This is the call of every believer. Now, more than ever, we need to be speaking resurrection and redemption to the dead and dark places in our communities. The power of the gospel is transformative. It is not about our deeds but about receiving Christ's life, death, and resurrection. Together, let's pray, bless, and participate in bringing the good news to our community.
(upbeat music) - Welcome to the Catch the Fire Church Podcast. We're so glad you're joining us and we hope you're encouraged by this message. - All right, how was everyone's week? Good, fire tunnels. There's the woos. Right? We've been hearing some amazing testimonies from last week from the fire tunnels. I know personally of somebody who started at the fire tunnel with a cane. And by the time she got to the middle, she was bouncing around like this, right? And by the time we got home, we got a text message that she throwed the cane away. Is that good? Look at her, look at her go. Is that good news? Is it worth it? It's totally worth it, right? Come on! Oh, I know, I know that there's more testimonies like that too, right? Personally for me, standing up here, trying to hold Duncan up from the back, right? If it was awkward for you, imagine. For me, right? I had three gigantic people standing in front of me and I am not in a position to catch anybody with their type of frame. Do you know what I mean? And so I was just, I don't think I'm doing much back here, but Jesus gave me strength. And actually, actually when the fire tunnels got rolling, I actually did feel a strengthening. Did anybody else experience that in some measure? Yeah, but I don't have words for it yet. I don't understand exactly what that is, but I'm super excited to see how that's gonna manifest out in my life. Standing on the other end over here, watching some of you guys roll through, literally roll through. I just, I got a little teary, a little weepy. Anybody else feel weepy in the room? Like our hearts of stone just getting a little more fleshy, right? Come on, like what a joy. What a joy to be able to participate in building God's kingdom together. Amen. And so in that vein, actually we're starting a new series today. We will go, right? Pentecost happened, Holy Spirit fell, and now it's our turn. It's our responsibility. Now it's our joy to take what came in the upper room and just spread it out to the world around us. Right? And so today the title of my message is Passion for the city or I'm thinking about this. I'll let you know. I'm thinking stop, drop, and roll. I don't know. You tell me what you think. It's a huge topic. Missions, Christian participation, right? It's gotta, there's a lot of avenues, a lot of facets, a lot of things that we can talk about. Right? And so this is a feast of a subject. Right? Acts on, like the whole thing is about missions. Actually from Genesis to Revelation, the whole thing is about missions. Right? This is a feast of a topic and I'm just giving you a plate today. Okay? And so if there's something that you think that I should mention or should be mentioned and I don't, just hold the email until the end of the series. Okay, chances are it's gonna be covered. It's gonna be mentioned in some way or another. Okay, my job today is to just get us inspired, right? To talk about the kingdom that is at hand, right? Talk about the Holy Spirit fuel that now just ignites our mission, right? Are we cool? We ready to go? All right. So our key verse today is Jeremiah 29 verse seven. Seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I have carried you into exile. Pray to the Lord for it because if it prospers, you too will prosper. In its context, this verse, Jeremiah is writing to those in Babylon. They're in exile. Jeremiah's letter here is meant to encourage those people that while that they're underneath this wicked kingdom that they're gonna be there for the long haul, right? They gotta be in the extended stay hotel. That kind of situation, right? Like that their deliverance wasn't going to be as swift as maybe that they had hoped. Proverbs 13, 12 says, "Hope deferred makes the heart sick." Nobody wants a sick heart. So receiving a letter that essentially says get comfortable, there's peace to be found, there's prosperity to be found. I imagine would bring some clarity to their situation for them. Maybe open up some room in their hearts for some hope despite the borders that they found themselves in, right? And sometimes, when we found ourselves in a difficult situation, we just need a little bit of clarity and it helps, doesn't it? That clarity gives room for hope in our hearts to pray and to bless and to continue the mission of God. And I mean, literally, just a few verses later, Jeremiah gives us one of the most purchased Hobby Lobby wall scriptures ever. You know the one? For I know the plans I have for you, plans for your well-being, not for disaster, but to give you a hope in the future. He goes on to say, "You will seek me "and find me when you search for me with your whole heart. "I will be found by you. "The Lord's declaration is this. "I will restore." Everybody say, "Restore." Your fortunes and gather you from all nations, everyone say all nations. And the places where I banished you, I will restore you to the place from which I deported you. Right, remember, these people, they're in exile. They're in bondage under the rule of a tyrannical king and a crooked system, but I'm gonna ask you this. Where is the Lord? Is he near or is he far? He says that he's near. He says that despite their situation, he's there to be found, that he hears our cries. And according to Jeremiah, he's there ready to restore and to redeem. There's a general consensus among scholars. I'm not one of them. I mean, I do agree with this, but I'm not a scholar. There's a general consensus that Jeremiah's letter arrived in the very early days of the exile. And we see a bit of how this played out in the book of Daniel. So we're around the same time as that gives you a timeframe for when you read your scriptures. As a young man, he and his friends, Shadrach, Meshach, had been to go. Right, they were selected to serve in the king's court. And they served faithfully, actively seeking the well-being of the prosperity of those that they served, without compromise. Example, King Nebuchadnezzar, he has this dream, and he needs it to be interpreted. And so he goes to his council of magicians and warlocks and soothsayers and all that, right? And nobody can get the job done. And so because he's a gracious, good, benevolent king, he just orders everyone's execution, right? And Daniel gets word of this, and he says, not on my watch. Actually, give me an audience with the king. Give me a chance to interpret this dream. And by the way, no one dies today. And his wish is granted, and he does the job. And lives are saved. I'm talking about pagans, everybody. I'm talking about warlocks and soothsayers. Like the kind of people today, we just, we feel really comfortable around those kind of people. Are we eager to save their lives? What happens? Daniel gets promoted to the chief of magicians. It's Daniel 4-9. Chief of magicians, everybody comfortable with that title? Does it sit well with us? I'm not saying Daniel was a magician, I'm not saying he practiced the dark arts, right? You get, are you hearing me, right? I don't think he liked his title very much, but he was willing to be misunderstood. He was willing to be mislabeled to get the job done, to be a source of light in a place of darkness. Right, he understood the assignment. His faith never wavered. Today, he'd probably be canceled. Right, like let's just bring this, let's reel it in. Let's bring it a little closer to home. Just pick your favorite celebrity right now, or your influencer, maybe, that goes against our preferred Christian ethic. How much time and energy has been spent cursing them, slandering them, judging them, gossiping, in some way or another? Got real quiet. It's okay. I'm gonna give two examples. All right, and I'm only mentioning this to illustrate a point, all right? So just hear my heart here. This isn't to condemn anybody. This isn't to promote anybody. Okay, I'm just doing this as an example to make a point for us all, because I think we can all just do, we can all get, we could use for the water level to be raised a little bit, yeah? Okay, all right, I'm going in. Pray for me. Taylor Swift, Kat Von D. One is accused of witchcraft, and the other is a former witch. One of them recently got called out on social media by a pretty prominent Christian influencer, and not in a nor do I condemn you, go and send no more kind of a way. More in like a, you should be tarred and feathered kind of a way. And hundreds of thousands of professed Christians took to the comment section and just slandered, judged, shamed, some even advocating for her to burn. The other one, a famous witch and singer/songwriter, brand ambassador, perhaps maybe one of the most famous tattoo artists in the whole world. She recently renounced witchcraft, became a Christian, broadcasted her baptism to her millions of followers, and her comment section blew up too, but not in a great way. Professing Christians again in the hundreds of thousands, condemning her, questioning her motives, saying that the Lord won't forgive her. Do we want people to be witches or not? Is what I'm saying, like we can do better. The world is watching us, we can do better, everybody. Am I making sense? Okay, like we can warn, we can be wise and discerning of what we consume, and we should be. Look, Daniel, he didn't bow to the king. He didn't compromise his convictions. But he did pray for the king, even when the law was don't pray. And what was the result of that? He got thrown into the lion's den. He was willing to pay the price. And did he die there in the lion's den? No, he was saved. What kind of testimony is that? Especially for the guy who put him there. We see it, we know the story, right? The king goes, pulls Daniel out of the lion's den, and Daniel's first words, looking at the guy who put him in there, who made the law of persecution, looks at the guy and says, "King, live forever. My God saved me." What happens next? The king makes a brand new law that says everyone now has to respect and fear Daniel's God. Listen, there's a way to protest and advocate for justice and morality and still remain faithful to the kingdom we claim is better than the kingdom we find ourselves in. Right, imagine if instead of shaming people, we used our platforms to pray and bless people. Or we just kept our mouths shut. And what if, before taking our opinions to the public, we just took them to the Lord first. I'm not saying ignore wickedness, but I am advocating that we bless and pray for actual human beings made in the image of God, right? Our battle isn't with them anyway, it's against the principalities and powers. I mean, let's be real, the world, just be honest, the world works better when it's operating under a blessing, right? We want the world to thrive in its goodness. And if it feels like the people in areas of power and influence are operating under a curse, just ask yourself if you're contributing to the cursing. Or are we blessing them to have continued transformative encounters with Jesus? Personally, I would just rather my leaders and influencers rather operate under a blessing. So they can clearly hear the voice of God and create things and act accordingly. Yes? Romans 5.8 says this, God demonstrated his love for us while we were still sinners. Christ died for us. Guys, when the prodigals come home, we got to bring the party, not the shame brigade. We're people of the party, right? As Brennan Manning said this, he's an author, he said, "The greatest single cause of atheism "in the world today is Christians "who acknowledge Jesus with their lips, "yet walk out the door and deny him with their lifestyle." That is what an unbelieving world simply finds, unbelievable. I think of the prophet Jonah. This guy clearly hears the voice of the Lord say, "Go to Nineveh for its wickedness has risen up to me." All right, let's just stop right there. God does not ignore wickedness, and neither should we. It's just Jonah was invited to do something about it. Not just be a voice, but to be a presence. He basically becomes a human wrecking ball in the process, just leaving a path of destruction everywhere that he went. Of course, Jonah doesn't want to go to Nineveh. In historical context, Nineveh was the capital of the Assyrian Empire. The Assyrian Empire was way more violent, way more corrupt than Babylon, where Daniel was, by a lot. So we can't really blame the guy for not wanting to pack his bags real quick to get there while his contemporaries are being slaughtered by the thousands, just for funds. (congregation laughing) It's easy to criticize and think that we'd act differently, right? Come on, Jonah, you heard God. How difficult is it to obey God? You heard what he said, just do it, right? We think that we would act differently, but the reality is we don't. Hey, how many times have we felt the urge to pray for somebody but didn't? Because of, I don't know, fear, anxiety, not wanting to be that guy, right? Or maybe you just, they rub you the wrong way. You don't like them very much, and you're like, you know what, they don't deserve my time, or my prayers, or my forgiveness. Getting some circles and just mentioned Disney or California, Texas or Florida, Taylor Swift, everyone suddenly's got opinions, right? It's not that wickedness doesn't exist, everybody, it does. And it's not that God doesn't want us to preach against it, he does. It's just that we can't respond to wickedness with more wickedness. How we respond matters, okay? God didn't say, Jonah, stay put and curse Nineveh, he said go, he said get in the middle of it and watch what I can do, okay? Jonah had wanted nothing to do with his assignment, but when he got there, revival breaks out. Hallelujah, even the animals are doing fire tunnels, right? Jonah's word gets to the king, and what does the king do? What's his response to the word of the Lord? He gets off of his throne, he takes off his royal robes, lays down his scepter, rejecting the system and the authority that he's been granted. He lays in the dust and declares that the whole city now fast and pray. I don't know how many people in this room have been on a mission trip, but when the king responds like that, that's about as good as a response as you can get, right? Jonah, though, he's not having it. He goes up on the hill and he waits for God to overturn Nineveh, just like how he preached. And the more he waited, the more frustrated he got with them and with God. Jealous that these wicked people somehow are gifted with God's mercy. Never mind the fact that the entire book of Jonah, he is completely leaving a path of destruction in his wake, being completely and totally disobedient. Happy, though, to receive God's mercy for himself. Well, he's the chosen one. He's the prophet. He's the sent one, right? And God in his goodness, it doesn't withhold mercy. In the book of Jonah, the chapter ends like this with a question from the Lord to Jonah. And should I not have concerned for the great city of Nineveh, in which there are more than a hundred and 20,000 people who cannot tell their right hand from their left and also many animals? It's a weird way to end a book. But I love that he mentions the animals, right? We get to the end of Jonah and this question is hanging there. God speaks and we're waiting for Jonah's response, like what's he gonna do next? And as we reflect on this, we realize it's not just a story about Jonah, it's a story about us and our tendencies of how we treat the difficult people in our lives and the difficult spaces that we find ourselves in, how we demand justice and judgment against those people and refuse to see that God's mercy over them is God's mercy on us, right? Jonah couldn't imagine a world where the Ninevehites helped to build God's kingdom. Could you? I don't know if I could have. Like are we able to see God building his kingdom through the difficult people in our lives? Like we await Jonah's response there. It wasn't recorded. And I think God is waiting for our response. And I think the world is waiting an eager anticipation for the sons and daughters of the king to be revealed. Amen. Do we want to see God's kingdom come? Do we want to experience it? Yes, of course I hope so. Or else what are we doing here? Well, we've got a part to play. Hope isn't passive. Okay, we have a responsibility to our neighbors to live a resurrected life. It didn't come cheaply. How do we do it though? Well, there's clues littered throughout scripture. Here's one of them from Paul in Romans 12, 17 through 19. Do not repay anyone evil for evil. Give careful thought to what is honorable in everyone's eyes. If possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone. We want to focus on God's plan for us. And God wants to know our plans for the places and people that we're surrounded by. Can we be found faithful amongst the faithless? Can we hold our peace in the midst of chaos? Can we bless those that curse us? Can we love our enemies? Can we be people of mercy and cities that don't deserve mercy? Can we throw a party when the prodigals come home? For those that received Jeremiah's letter or her Jesus speak, they got good news that day. That even despite what their expectations warranted or their circumstances dictated, the good news says restoration is coming. I am here, come find me, the kingdom is at hand. Nineveh, Nineveh did get overturned. It did, just as Jonah prophesied, just not in the way that he wanted. He wanted destruction, instead he got revival. And I want to tell you now, I don't know what you're experiencing, I don't know your circumstances, I don't know what you're expecting, but restoration is coming. The kingdom is at hand. He hears your cries and his plans and purposes for you are good to bring you peace and to bring you life. You can walk through the fires and throw your cane away, right? But the good news of the gospel is good news right now. Yes, it speaks to our blessed eternal future, right? But how many no eternity doesn't just happen when you die. We should not reduce the gospel to what happens to us when we die. The good news is for the living. Who's alive? Come on! When we said yes to Jesus, we weren't just saying yes to heaven when we passed away, we were saying yes to help bring heaven to earth right now. When we said yes to Jesus, we were saying yes to bring and seeking the welfare of our city. Do you know the full extent of what you said yes to when you said yes to Jesus? I certainly didn't. Not at all, but I'm learning. I'm trying to. I'm trying to grow and just continue my best to say yes. How do we as followers of Jesus deal with the contradictions of living in a world that is so often at odds with the kingdom of God? This is where we find ourselves, where the rubber meets the road. And to put it simply, we participate. We participate in God's redemptive plan for his good creation. We're called to participate because when we don't, somebody else will. And we would have abdicated our authority to the principalities and powers. 1 Peter 2, 11 through 12 speaks to this in a little bit. He says, "Dear friends, I urge you as strangers and exiles to abstain from sinful desires that wage war against the soul. Conduct yourselves honorable, honorably among the Gentiles, so that when they slander you as evil doers, they will observe your good works and will glorify God on the day he visits." Guys, he's coming for a visit. Are we ready? So we've got this theme running throughout Scripture, really starting from creation to Jeremiah, to Jesus, to Peter, to Paul, to all of us. This has always been the mission of God, to build his kingdom in his good world. That's part of what be fruitful and multiply means. Theologian, Emil Bruner once wrote this, the church exists by mission just as fire exists by burning. The gospel means good news. It does not mean good advice or good stuff or good feelings or good vibes or good deeds. It means good news. You know how we know that? Because none of that other stuff actually has the power to save us. The good news is actually the antidote for the good advice that has kept me in bondage. It's freedom from all of the good things that I have built unhealthy attachments to. It's the peace and comfort that transcends my understanding and good feelings. We should not reduce the gospel to good feelings. This is a kingdom of righteousness and peace and resurrection and redemption and poetry and life and love and light, not just good deeds and good vibes. The good news has a way of sneaking past our best defenses to get to our hearts. Remember when Jesus told Peter that the gates of hell would not prevail? Gates are in the defensive position and I feel like some of us actually want to activate our faith for those moments when hell shows up. But we're on the offense and the enemy's defense has nothing against what we got. It can't stand. We're supposed to be on the offensive because the enemy's plans will always be foiled. It doesn't mean that it's easy. Actually, it's pretty difficult. It's hard most days. But good thing he sent us a comforter. The church is on mission. Before his ascension, Jesus said repentance and forgiveness his sins would be preached to all nations. He said to the disciples to stay in the city until they were clothed with power from on high. That power is the promised Holy Spirit. As Christians clothed in the power of the Holy Spirit, we are not meant to bring restoration or destruction to the kingdoms of the world. We're meant to reveal the kingdom of God. All those other ones are shadows. Don't waste your time with them, right? And here's sometimes where I think we get tripped up. The gospel isn't something we do. It's something we receive because our good works don't save us. It's the life, death and resurrection of Jesus that saves us. It's by his mercy and grace that we're even able to call on his name. You know what I'm saying? Our faith is received. The finished work of the cross is credited to our account. It's a gift. What do we do with that? Sit on it, shelf it, keep it to ourselves. No, I hope not. This is good news. This is a good gift. Good news and good gifts are easy to share. Aren't they? Who doesn't like good news? All right, I'm going to demonstrate. I love collecting things. It drives Kelly crazy. I've got a comic book collection from when I was a kid. I've got a large collection of music. It's growing, mostly vinyl. I've got a growing collection of toys from the 80s. I've got Star Wars action figures that are still in their packaging sitting on my top shelf. I love it. I love it all. I love it, love it, love it, love it. Do you know how many times I've had to rescue my toys from being played with? It's a real awkward position to be in. Actually, first service, I won't get into it. So years ago, I had the opportunity to go to Disney World when the Star Wars Park opened, Galaxy's Edge. It's its first year. I had two missions. One, ride the Millennium Falcon, obviously. And two, get a lightsaber. I grew up in the 80s, Star Wars in the 80s was a thing, at least for this kid. The closest thing I ever had to a lightsaber was a long wrapping paper cardboard roll that me and my brother would fight with. So this was a moment. And Kelly was like, "Do you really need that?" And I said, "Can you bring it up?" This is Eisley, everybody, named from Star Wars. She said, "Do you really need that?" And I said, "Look, imagine our house gets broken into. It's late at night, it's dark, and all the intruders sees is me standing there like this." She said, "You're going to be the first to go." I said, "But what a way to go." If you're going to go, go out holding a lightsaber in your hand. So there I am. I'm buying my first lightsaber. It's going to be Luke's. It's going to be the green one, obviously, in my opinion. This is an official replica of the movie prop. Okay, it was expensive. Are there any Star Wars fans here? Okay, Josh, come on up here. Get my hand. Nice. Nice. Yeah, right up here. Okay. What's your name? Josh. What's your favorite Star Wars movie? I don't know. Come on. The original ones. The original ones. Okay, that's the right answer. That's the right answer. Okay, who's your favorite Star Wars character? Mmm, probably Han Solo. Good answer. Good answer. I like Han. I like Han. Okay, I'm going to give you my lightsaber. Not to keep. Sorry. This is an illustration. It's good news. It's not that good, though. Okay. All right, it does. Yeah, it does. Okay, so go ahead, light it up. There's a little trigger here. Just push it up. Yeah. Go ahead, swinging around a little bit gently. I don't know if you guys can hear it. How you feeling? You feel powerful. You look good. You look good. You guys, if this was sitting on my shelf, it would bring joy to absolutely nobody except me. Right? And this is the exact same way for how we treat the gospel. I'm sorry if I'm losing you guys, but this is, I'm going somewhere with this. It's our, our joy is meant to be lit up. Right? And shared with the world around us. Okay. Now, okay, Josh, were you expecting the whole lightsaber in church today? No. Are you going to tell anybody that you held a lightsaber in church today? Probably not. That didn't go that didn't go the way I wanted it to. I will tell people. All right. Good. Is anybody else going to tell people that somebody held a lightsaber in church today? How many people here that are not holding the lightsaber wish that they were holding the lightsaber? Right? Right? Because what you've got is good. It's awakened something in us. Right? You are the lightsaber of the world. Come on. It was right there. It's right there. Yeah? Thank you. You can sit down. Appreciate it. Right, Josh, he didn't imagine the lightsaber. He didn't create it. He didn't build it or put it together. Right? It was expensive, but he didn't purchase it. But somehow when he used it, he did receive it though as a gift and he used it in the way that it was intended. Right? And when he did that for just a few seconds, it awakened something in us. Didn't it? Everybody else now wants to have a part of that. And if that's true of that thing, how much more for the gospel of Jesus? How much more? Our salvation should be good news for everybody around us. Everybody around us. When we put into action the good news of our salvation, cities are blessed. Why? Because suddenly it's the fruit of the spirit that's growing in the community garden. Right? Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, gentleness, faithfulness, self-control. Whose city could use a little bit more joy? Whose city could use a little bit more self-control? Obviously, yes. Well, it's our responsibility as followers of Jesus to cultivate these things in the world around us. What if we were a people so satisfied and saturated in our oneness with Christ, living out our resurrection lifestyle filled with the power of the Holy Spirit that when people entered our city limits to meet us, they had to get through Jesus first. Come on, you guys, I believe this is possible. I believe we can do this. I really, really do. We recently on our on our outreach, just a few weeks ago, someone came to believe in Jesus for the first time in their lives. Amen. And this is what they told our team. This is what they told our team. They said, "I am convinced that Jesus loves me because of the way you guys love me." It's the long haul. It's not always easy, but we will be known by our love. And when they know us, they will know Him. That's how it works, everybody. The spirit that rose Jesus from the dead lives inside of all of us. It's the spirit. He's in the resurrection business. He's attracted to the dead things and he wants to use us to bring him to life. Right? Revelation, Romans 8, 19, for creation eagerly awaits with anticipation for God's sons and daughters to be revealed. Jesus says this in John 14, 12, "Very truly, I tell you, whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these things because I am going to the Father. How are the greater things coming?" Come on. We threw a cane away. It's coming. We're doing it, guys. Immediately after the fire and wind of the Holy Spirit came in the upper room to those disciples, they spilled out onto the streets. Back in the 80s, we had this phrase called "Stop, Drop, and Roll." Anybody remember Stop, Drop, and Roll? You guys, the amount of times I had to do fire drills practicing Stop, Drop, and Roll. I had nightmares as a kid feeling like I was going to one day just spontaneously combust into flames. I just felt like that's just what people did. "Never once have I ever used Stop, Drop, and Roll." "Never once have I actually seen anybody actually do Stop, Drop, and Roll until I came here." We all witnessed it last week. Fire tunnels. You know what I'm talking about. I saw some of you. You got in there. The fire fell. You stopped. You dropped, and you rolled around. And that's what happened in Acts 2. The upper room, fire falls. They stop what they're doing. They drop to the lower level, and then they rolled out into the streets. It's the same for us. Peter shared the good news. There were 120 disciples in the upper room that day. Don't can talk to about that last week. By the end of the day, there were 3,000 brand new baptized believers. 3,000 people is a lot of people. That's a good day. That's a good day. And it says this, "They devoted themselves to prayer and fellowship and signs and wonders, and everybody's needs were met." And their number grew daily. That sounds a whole lot like seek the peace and prosperity of your city, because if it prospers, you will prosper. So how do we get there? We have some ideas. We're going to go throughout the rest of the series, but I've distilled it down to three points for today that we can take home with us. First, we pray, we bless, and we participate. So we pray. We seek the Lord's heart for the spaces we occupy and the people we're in network with. We bless. Upon hearing the Lord's heart, we agree with it, and we bless the people and spaces we find ourselves in. We pray, and we bless for those spaces to be transformed more and more into a place deserving of a coming King. He's coming back. That's good news. We participate. We seek the Lord's heart. We agree with it, and then we go. I'm not sure where to start. Pray again. Get some counsel. What do you have in your hands? Use it. Where do your likes and hobbies intersect with the city's needs? Go do something with that. Okay, and lastly, bonus one. Change the way you speak about your city. Don't gossip, curse, slander, or judge. The quickest way to change the reputation of a thing is to change the way we talk about it. So last year, we can put the slide up. Last year, I did this super scientific experiment research project thing where I asked a bunch of Facebook groups to give me a word or a phrase when they thought of the city of Durham, and this is what came up. Top five most repeated words that I received, diverse, crime, poverty, dangerous, and artsy. I've got my Durham shirt on today. You guys can see it, right? Let me stick it out a little bit so you guys can. Sorry. Sorry. It says Durham renowned the world around. This was a design in a slogan from 1913. Around the frame here, it's got four words, wealth, health, success, and progress. I believe in this Durham, not that one. So here's the thing. I don't know if anyone's been paying attention to the local news, but there has been an uptick in crime in Durham over the last four weeks. And I say we got to pull a Daniel and we say put me in coach. No one dies today. And so I think it would be the most appropriate thing to do to put into practice what we just talked about. So our ministry time today, what I would like us for us to do is to get in groups together, and we're going to pray for Durham. And we're going to bless Durham. I've got some prayer points. We can put the slides up. And so go ahead, everybody, stand up, get into some groups. And we're going to pray for Durham. We're going to pray for Durham's prosperity. We're going to pray for housing, unity, safety, creativity, wisdom, peace, and for righteousness and justice. So just pray as the Holy Spirit leads you. Thank you so much for joining us. There are so many opportunities to grow, connect, and be encouraged. To learn more, visit TTFRolly.com and follow us on social media. Thank you so much for being part of the family. We are so thankful for you.