Ep. 026 God’s Grace Sin, Separation, Substitution, Salvation

Welcome to the Potter's House Salmon Arm podcast. We are a Bible-Believing Church located

in beautiful British Columbia, Canada. We are proudly part of the Christian Fellowship

Ministries with 3,000 churches around the world. We are a church focused on world evangelism,

discipleship and church planting. Here we will share recent sermons from P.H.S.A. Church

and other sermons from throughout our fellowship. I am Pastor David Bigford and I will be your

host for this podcast. I thank you for listening today and we hope these messages are a blessing

to you and bring you closer to God.

Hello and welcome back to the Potter's House Salmon Arm podcast. My name is David Bigford.

I am the pastor of the Potter's House Church here in Salmon Arm. Today's message that I

put together is called God's Grace. It is about sin, separation, substitution and ultimately

what everything is always about is salvation. As we go ahead and get into this message,

the text is very short today. It is going to be Titus 2.11. You can turn there in your

Bible if you are following along as we go ahead and get started. As we jump in, we are

going to look at God's grace this morning. I want to talk about what that means, God's

grace. To fully understand grace we need to consider who we were without Christ and who

we become with Christ. We were born into sin as we can see throughout the scripture, Psalm

51.5. We are guilty of breaking God's holy laws which is very well laid out in Romans

3, 9-20 and verse 23 as well as in 1 John 1, 8-10. We are enemies of God. You can see

that in Romans and in the collage as well. We are deserving of death. We were unrighteous

and without some means of justifying ourselves, spiritually we are destitute, blind, unclean

and dead and our souls are in peril of everlasting punishment. But then came grace. God extended

his favor to us. Grace is what saves us. That is what we see when we read Ephesians verses

2-8. Grace is the essence of the gospel. Grace gives us victory over sin. Grace gives us

eternal encouragement and a good hope. Paul repeatedly identified grace as the basis of

his calling as an apostle and Jesus Christ is the embodiment of that grace coupled with

the truth. So let's look at a story that I came across and how this relates to us and

both the grace we have received and our call to share that gospel of grace with others.

This is a story from a military commander who had the unfortunate duty to oversee one

of his officers as they were charged and found guilty of a serious crime. As we walk through

this story, I want to draw your attention to the pain that it caused everyone around

the situation. The family, friends, the co-workers were all affected and it would have been easy

to become bitter dealing with this situation. But remember this message is about grace and

not retribution. So as we jump into this illustration, I first

want to go ahead and share the message or the text this morning again which is Titus

2-11. So the grace of God has appeared bringing salvation for all people because that really

hinge pins exactly what we're going to be talking about is that it is for the salvation

of all people that we have the ability to tap into grace in Jesus Christ. So this story

is called A Prison Called Leavenworth and it's from this commanding officer who had

to deal with one of his other officers who had committed a crime and now he's having

to deal with the aftermath or the reckoning that is coming because of this crime.

So if we begin, I've held three commands in my career and each one was completely different.

There were a lot of high points along the way. There was at least as many low points

after the after three commands. I knew I'd had enough. It was time to do something else

and there wasn't much point in looking back. One of the low points in my final command

was having to escort a fellow officer under guard to Fort Leavenworth Military Prison.

I was commanding a flying squadron and was at my desk late in the afternoon when the

phone rang. A voice said firmly, this is Agent Baylor from the Office of Special Investigations

OSD. I'd like to meet you tomorrow at the Wing Commander's office. Can you be there?

I nodded my head and then realized I was on the phone. I managed to barely audible, yes,

I'll be there. I hung up the phone and tried to figure out what this was all about. Even

as a squadron commander, I'd only been to the Wing Commander's office once and very

briefly. Finally, I got a little mad and called the agent back. Is this about me or one of

my people who works for me? He was embarrassed and said, oh, no, sir, it's about one of your

people, but I can't talk about it until tomorrow. Somewhat relieved, somewhat troubled, I hung

up the phone. The next morning as I neared the door of the Wing Commander's office, two

men in suits stepped out. One introduced himself without extending his hand. Hi, I'm Agent

Willis. I'm with the FBI. Right then and there, I think I started going into shock.

This brings me to my first point, which is sin and separation. As we're going through

this illustration and as we're putting it into the framework of the messages of grace,

we reflect back on Titus 2.11, for the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to

all people. We're getting into this story. We recognize something very traumatic has

happened. We don't know what that is yet, but we can understand that a crime has been

committed or a sin has been committed. And now somebody has been separated and it's all

about to come to light. And that's often how the devil will work is through the mechanisms

of temptation. They'll draw away people into sin and they don't even realize that they're

being separated until it's too late because that's the goal of sin is separation. So let's

continue on with the story. And then we'll find out a little bit more about the crime.

I sat in the chair in front of the Wing Commander with my boss, an FBI agent and an OSI agent.

The agent started by swearing us to secrecy, declaring a lapse in confidentiality was a

felony and punishable by well, you get the picture. It's interesting how even at the

beginning of this, they warn our commanding officer that we're talking, that's telling

the story that, hey, this is serious enough that if you even talk about it, you will be

punished as well. And that's often what it looks like happens in life and in society

is that when sin comes into our lives or comes into the lives of those we care about, if

we are mumbling about sin, if we're sharing it openly, it'll cause more damage than the

dealing with it with careful consideration. And just as a side has popped into my head

as I'm talking, this is a reason why you should be very careful about airing your dirty laundry

or somebody else's dirty laundry to the world. You have to work through the sin. You have

to do so with a meaningful manner. But oftentimes, by just like, you know, gossiping about something,

you can make the situation far worse. And you can also damage the any opportunity for

somebody to be able to be restored after the fact.

So the FBI agent pulled out a stack of photographs indicating an officer of mine, Joe Canty,

had been caught in the commission of a serious felony. When they passed the photos to me

I looked swiftly at only the first photo and my stomach churned. I passed them to my boss

sitting beside me. I tried to assess the impact of this situation. It could only conclude

it was going to be bad. Joe was a popular among his peers and had served many years

in the service. I knew the FBI would arrest him soon. His life would be ruined. The morale

of the squadron would plummet. The man's wife and children would suffer as well. So when

we think of in scriptural terms, we think of sin entering in the world with Adam and

Eve. And we know that it was the disobedience of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. This

is nothing new to anyone who has even the smallest amount of biblical knowledge. But

for the sake of clarity, let's look at that story again. In Genesis 3, 1 through 7, we

read about the fall. Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that

the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, did God actually say, you shall not eat of

any of the trees in the garden? And the woman said to the serpent, we may eat of the fruit

of the trees in the garden. But God said, you shall not eat of the fruit of the tree

that is in the midst of the garden. Neither shall you touch it lest you die. But the serpent

said to the woman, you will surely not die. For God knows that when the serpent said to

the woman, you surely not die or sorry, for God knows that when you eat of it, your eyes

will be open and you will be like God knowing good and evil. So when the woman saw that

the tree was good for food and that it was a delight to the eyes that the tree was to

be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate it. She also gave some to her

husband who was with her and he ate. Then the eyes of both were open and they knew they

were naked and that they and they sowed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths.

The story of the fall shows that our willingness to sin is what separates us from God. And

I find it very, very interesting too, because typically with sin, you know, they they've

been told not to do this thing. Then they got convinced that this thing that they were

going to do was OK. But it's always it's always really remarkable because oftentimes we know

in our heart, you know, when something is sinful, because there's like an immediate

reaction of blue, I shouldn't have done that. I shouldn't have done that. And the and the

right reaction is to turn and repent at that moment. But oftentimes we we instead try to

cover it. We sow fig leaves in our lives and to cover our sin rather than just saying,

Lord, I know I'm messed up and I need you and I need your help so that I can repent

from my sin, turn from my sin, but then also just move forward. And deal with the damage

that's been done. So it's a really simple picture here. Think of being in a trailhead

and one direction leads to a better, stronger relationship with God, the father and the

other path leads to the lusts of the heart and the mind. Now, God's path is obscured

a bit. It looks a little less traveled and a tad overgrown. The other path is wide open

and well traveled. You might even see large groups of people headed down the wide path,

but only a few head out on the goat trail, which is the path to God. This is the allure

of the world, a fallen world that hides the sin and pain and set and the separation and

loneliness with a veil of pleasures, fun and excitement. This is why so many head down

that path and often they don't see their mistake until it's too late for them to head back.

They are too far down the road to find the other trail unless there's grace. God's trail

is true. It might be hard to distinguish at times, but it's but that's on purpose. We

are meant to seek the father and to build a relationship with him. His path is not as

easy. His path is not easy at times. It can be, you know, if you're into hiking, if you're

into skiing or anything like that, you can think of it as like a double black diamond

trail, but it is the right trail. You know, the difficulty of the trail, the testing of

the trail doesn't mean that it isn't the right trail through the ups and downs of life, the

vistas in the valleys. God is there with us as we blaze a trail growing closer to him

with every step by getting stronger in our feet. You know, being challenged through the

testing and the trials of life, we gain strength, which I kind of touched on last week is the

idea that like if all you do is train on a flat, even easy trail, you actually don't

gain strength and you could you either have to increase your duration or increase your

difficulty to gain strength. So if you're on like a super easy, smooth trail, maybe

even slightly downhill because your head is through to hell, right? It would be, yeah,

that's a that's a perfect picture of what, you know, the path of the world is. It's such

an easy downhill slope, not so easy that you notice you're going downhill, but just a nice

easy downhill grade where it doesn't take much energy or strength to head in the direction

that separates you from God. But God's trail is a challenging trail that's going to lead

you to the top of the mountain to be as close to the father as you possibly can. And that

takes work. That takes sweat. That takes energy. The biggest problem with the world's trail

is that it only leads to destruction. Yeah, it's easy. It's a stroll. But before you know

long, it's like walking down a dark alley in Chicago or New York. And like I said, with

that idea of a downhill slope, the second you recognize that you've been heading in

the wrong direction, you've still got to climb your way back out of it. Now, with God's grace,

you're going to be able to do that. That doesn't mean that there isn't going to be a hike ahead

of you. So let's get back to our illustration in the store. We'll pick it up again. A week

later, the FBI had gathered all the evidence that they believe they needed and knocked

on his door. The news spread like wildfire when the newspapers reported the arrest, the

phone began to ring off the hook with questions. However, as a commander, I had to respect

the privacy of the individual. I called my squadron together and told them of the news

of Joe's arrests and the publicly releasable facts. Unfortunately, the facts didn't fill

in any gaps and the speculation ruled the day. A number of people surmised that I had

a vendetta against him or had set him up. I couldn't answer those charges because to

do so would have violated his legal privacy rights. The process of criminal justice had

been described as a grinding wheel that moves slowly and surely. Along the way, there's

a lot of pain. It took nearly a year before Joe came to trial and during that time, the

squadron suffered through the under the surface tension I expected. Nevertheless, we had an

important mission to accomplish and we did it. When the trial ended, he was found guilty

and sentenced to serve time at Fort Leavenworth Military Prison in Kansas. Over the months

between arrest and trial, I had spent a lot of time with him and managed to guide him

into counseling with various sources. Now we see Joe Canty here has been separated,

which is what our life looks like when we're actively sinning and we're not turning to

Christ when we're not giving our life to Christ and we're living in the world. We might not

always understand it, but we're living far from the Father. We're living a life of loneliness

and separation. That's why in this day and age, so oftentimes, people are filling themselves

with entertainment and it's only going to get worse as AI becomes more prevalent because

people aren't going to need to talk to real people in order to get just enough, you know,

just enough affection from a fake source where there's not good. They're not going to turn

to Christ. They're not going to turn to God. They're going to be separated and not even

know it. And so we have to actively work against that. If we're Christian, we're working with

people to say, Hey, no, this is why you do not forsake the gathering of the brethren.

If you do not forsake the body of the church, because you need to be around real people,

you need to be around people who are going to tell you and help you to continue to focus

on the gospel of Jesus Christ, because otherwise you're just going to be heading into a nice

comfy prison of solitude until you don't until you don't realize that there's no way out

for you. When we pick back up the story of the fall in Genesis, we can see a similar

parallel to Joe Canty story. The choice that Joe made in his life have now separated him

from his family, his friends and his life in them as a military officer. Joe will have

to find something else to cling to now that he will be, you know, be feeling that cold

separation from his life before this punishment. And Genesis three 22 through 24, it says,

then the Lord God said, behold, the man has become like one of us knowing good and evil.

Now lest he reaches out his hand and takes also the tree of life and eat and live forever.

Therefore the Lord God had sent him out from the Garden of Eden to work the ground from

which he has taken. He drove out the man at the east of the Garden of Eden. He placed

a chair of him in a flaming sword that would turn every way to guard the way to the tree

of life. So you see this immediate separation and God still wanted a relationship with mankind,

but it couldn't be the same kind of relationship that he had intended for mankind. They have

been separated. Their sin has separated them. Springs of my next point, which is sacrifice

and substitution. Sacrifice is something we see quite a bit in Levitical law. The Old

Testament is full of sacrifices. You have a sacrifice for every kind of sin. And that

is because before Christ, this was the only way to cover sin, a constant sacrifice that

was very time consuming and ultimately proves to be ineffective. And Hebrews 10 verses one

through four, we find we talk or we read about how Christ's the sacrifice for once and all.

So verse one, for since the law has but a shadow of the good things to come instead

of the true form of these realities, it can never by the same sacrifice that are continually

offered every year make perfect those who draw near. Otherwise, would they not have

ceased to be offered since the worshipers have once been cleansed, would no longer have

had any consciousness of sin. But in these sacrifices, there is a reminder of the sin

every year, for it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sin. So what

is, what does this lead us to is that as we move into Christianity, as we see, you know,

read the gospel of Jesus Christ, we see that the fulfillment of Jesus Christ is the substitution

of the sacrifice. A substitution was needed, a perfect sacrifice was needed. We have all

sinned and fallen short of the glory of the Lord. We sin too much and too often for the

blood of animals to cover it. We needed a Messiah, a perfect unblemished sacrifice. And

that is why Jesus was sent. And Hebrews 10 five through 12, it says, Consequently, when

Christ came into the world, he said, sacrifices and offerings you have not desired, but a

body have you prepared for me and burnt offerings and sin offerings you have taken no pleasure.

Then I said, behold, I have come to do your will. Oh, God, as it is written of me in the

scroll of the book, when he said above, you have neither desired nor taken pleasure in

sacrifices and offerings and burnt offerings and sin offerings. These are offered according

to the law. Then he added, behold, I have come to do your will. He does away with the

first in order to establish the second. And by that will we have been sanctified through

the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once and for all. And every priest stands daily

at his service, offering repeatedly the same sacrifices which can never take away sin.

But when Christ had been offered for all time, a single sacrifice for sins, he sat down at

the right hand of God. So this brings me to my third point, which is punishment, discipline

and chastisement. And we go back into our illustration because we have to understand

that separation is a natural out, you know, the natural occurrence of sin. And if it weren't

for the sacrifice, the perfect sacrifice that is Jesus Christ, we would have no way to be

able to come back into relationship with God. So let's pick up our story again. The day

after he was sentenced, I was asked to provide an escort to take him to prison. It had been

some it had to be someone of equal or higher rank and I could have sent someone else, but

I didn't. I felt it was was a responsibility I had to bear. The church started out in somewhat

lighthearted way. Joe, now a former officer, was was a convict. Yet he told jokes and made

funny remarks through the first half of the trip. I couldn't figure out how he could be

so lighthearted when his wife and children were home crying and his career had ended

in disgrace. I had to give this former comrade an arms credit for trying to keep up a brave

front. But as we drew closer to Kansas, and then to the small town of Fort Leavenworth,

the conversation came to a halt altogether. As we approached the prison, its massive structure

was visible even from a distance. I was overcome by the historic nature of the brick and stone

fortress. The building was nearly 200 years old. And even the prison cells were opened

with skeleton keys artifacts of another era. The main prison fortress was about eight stories

in all three stories of which were below ground. It was octagonal in shape, made of brick and

stone, was both dark and formidable. We pulled into the parking lot. We walked into the reception

area and reported to the guard at the entrance with the prisoner who was in handcuffs. He

ushered Joe into an alcove where he ordered him to strip. After the first of what would

be three strip searches was completed, we walked with the prison guard and the prisoner

into the inner prison. Joe was taken to the deepest bowels of the prison where he was

in processed. Though it got hotter and hotter as we descended, no cool breeze or air conditioning

made the journey more comfortable. In the 1800s, there was no air conditioning and things

hadn't improved much since then. Finally, we reached the area of his cell block and my

responsibility ended. I signed over the prisoner to the guard and said goodbye. I promised

to return to visit when the first visiting day came and later kept my promise. The trip

home was long and silent. It's so easy and enjoyable to rejoice with those who rejoice.

As a commander, I'd enjoyed the promotion parties and visiting new parents and their

babies in the hospital. Yet sometimes we are asked to suffer with those who suffer and

weep with those who weep. Genesis 3, 16 through 19 says to the woman, he said, I will surely

multiply your pain and childbearing and pain you shall bring forth children. Your desire

shall be contrary to your husband, but he shall rule over you. And to Adam, he said,

because you have listened to the voice of your wife and have eaten of the tree which

I commanded you, you shall not eat of. Cursed is the ground because of you and in pain you

shall eat of it all the days of your life. Thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for

you and you shall eat the plants of the field. By the sweat of your face, you shall eat bread

till you return to the ground. For out of it you were taken. For you are dust and to

dust you shall return. It's in this place with this illustration, with this verse of

scripture that we have to decide how we're going to react. Just like Joe Canty, the punishment

is just. The crime was committed. Now we're faced with a choice. Do we accept the punishment?

The discipline, the chastisement of the Lord? Or do we continue to rebel against him? As

Christians we also have a choice. Do we look down arrogantly at those who have fallen knowing

that they deserve the punishment? Or do we take a different approach? In James 4.6 it

says, but he gives more grace. Therefore it says, God opposes the proud, but gives grace

to the humble. So this brings me to the final point of my closing, which is where we take

a turn now and we look at repentance and salvation. In Acts 20.24 it says, but I do not account

for my life, or but I do not account my life of any value, nor is it precious to myself.

If only I may finish my course and my ministry that I received from the Lord Jesus to testify

to the gospel of the grace of God. As Christians the whole point of what we're here to do is

spread the gospel of Jesus Christ, this message of grace. And that doesn't stop when someone

falls. No, the message of grace continues on. Because when we look at the patriarchs,

we look at all of the heroes of the faith in the Old Testament, we look at how the ones

that were esteemed to be godly are the ones that were able to humble themselves and repent.

Whether it was King David, whether it was Moses himself, or whether it was Hezekiah,

or any of the good kings of Judah. The ones that were attributed to being good were the

ones that were able to humble themselves and admit their wrongdoing. So let's look at the

last part of our illustration, which as we close, too often Christians have a tendency

to abandon the wounded rather than the minister to them. I think we grow in ways not easily

seen when we touch the face of pain and do not draw back. When I think of Joe, I can't

bring myself to feel better or more righteous than he. I wouldn't try to excuse what he

did, but I also know I've made my share of mistakes. While I'm convinced he was treated

nicely, I'm also convinced that except for God's grace, I would be no better off. Maybe

that's why I walk a little more carefully during each new day God gives me. The morning

sky and the evening sunset are as precious to me as the grace he poured out freely at

Calvary. I really like the way that this commanding officer ends this, with this self-reflection

and understanding that if it were not for the grace that we have in Christ, we would

all be just as lost. And in our society today, we see that. We see this society that's losing

itself to every form of perversion, the acceptance of the injustice that they deem to be right

in the face of it being clearly wrong. Just this last week, there was the State of the

Union address in the United States where the President of the United States, Joseph Biden,

was surprisingly energetic, but he was very angry. At least that's the way it came across

to me. He was very much like an old man yelling at kids to get off his lawn. And there was

a very troubling times in the Western world, whether it's Canada, whether it's the United

States, there's a lot of anger. And a lot of that anger comes from the wrong conclusions

people are pulling to. The idea that government is going to save you. The idea that government

is going to save you is a flawed argument because our savior is Jesus. I don't need

another savior. I have one in Christ. But what I like about this story is that we have

to be careful not to judge people so harshly. But at the same time, it's not that we're

not judging sin. It's that we're recognizing that we are recipients of grace, ourself.

And so when I say we're not judging people so harshly, it's not that we're not judging

the sin. It's that we're allowing space so that they can be redeemed. In Titus 2, 11

through 15, it says, but the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people,

training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, to live self-controlled, upright

and godly lives in the present age, waiting for our blessed hope and appearing to the

glory of our great God and savior, Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to be redeemed, to

redeem us from all lawlessness, to purify for himself a people for his own possession

who are zealous for good works. Declare these things, exhort and rebuke with all authority.

Let no one disregard you. So you can see from this scripture, we're called to rebuke, we're

called to exhort with all authority, but it's with the purpose of restoration because we're

looking for people to be redeemed, to be purified. We proclaim the gospel of grace. This grace

covers a multitude of sins and we share this message with boldness because those whom we

seek are lost. They are the criminals against the laws of God and they need to be confronted

with this message, not with anger or bitterness or hate, but with a deep love and a true compassion.

We are all lost, but in Christ we have been found and redeemed. There's enough grace for

all of those who turn from their sin and accept Christ's gift of grace and his salvation.

The message of the cross is one of grace and when we think back of the message of the cross,

you have to remember the two thieves next to Jesus. One was incapable of humbling himself

in the face of his judgment and he died in his sin. The other humbled himself on the

cross and we know from the words of Jesus himself that he entered into heaven that day

with Jesus. He entered into paradise. So that is exactly what we need to focus on when we're

thinking of grace, when we're dealing with the downtrodden, the homeless among us, or

those that are addicted to any kind of sin, whether it be drugs or drinking or any of

the other multitudes of sin. Maybe it's lust in their heart. When we see people who have

been separated from God by their sin, who have been lied to by this world and now they're

reaping the harvest of those choices, we have to remember that if it wasn't for God's grace,

we would be there with them. And we have to recognize that it is because of God's grace

that we need to be reaching out to them so that they can see that they don't need to

be separated. And that even though the trail is lightly walked on, if it's less traveled

than the trail that they've gone down, it is still doable. It's still something they

can do because they can give their lives to Christ, they can be strengthened by Christ,

and they can start to work their way down the right path and leave the wide path behind.

So with that being said, if I could have every head bowed, every eye closed, if you're listening

along, if you're driving, obviously keep driving safely. But I want to take this to a close

and with an invitation. Every time I do this is the simple thing that if this message has

impacted you and you recognize you're going down the wrong path, it's not too late. You

can turn back to the right path. And it's very simple. You can repent of your sin and

accept Jesus Christ your Lord and Savior, and He will help you. His grace will help

you. And it's simple to do that. It's a simple prayer. Repeat after me, Dear Lord God, I

know that I'm a sinner, but I know that you sent your son Jesus and that he died for my

sin. I repent of my sin. I turned from my sin and I accept Jesus to be my Savior. I

accept him in my heart and I thank you for the grace of God in Jesus name. Amen. Simple

prayer and it's it's not formulaic. All it is really, I guess in a way it could be a

little bit construed as formulaic, but it's the it's the simple admission of your own

sin, your own fallen nature and the acceptance of Jesus Christ as your Savior while turning

from your sin and sin. Because that's that's the that's the formula, if you will, that

Jesus gave us himself when he would heal someone and say, Go and sin no more. And he would

tell people that all the time. It's always very interesting to me in our society today,

how they always say, Oh, you can't judge people. I was reading a thread about that yesterday

about how, Oh, well, Christians aren't supposed to judge. Well, then why did Jesus constantly

show us that sin is bad? Stop sinning? Is that judgmental to say that? Now we can't

always we can't continue to stop sinning and entirely entirely because we're fallen creatures.

But that's where grace comes in, right? But the reality is, is that Jesus constantly to

tell people, All right, stop sinning and follow me. Simple as that. So I want to thank you

for listening to this message today. I want to also ask that if you did finish all the

way through the end here, that you you know, you like you and you share and you subscribe

to this podcast to help me get it out there. I want to thank you. We saw an uptick in subscribers

in the last week and I'm you know, I really want to thank those who decided to subscribe.

We appreciate it because the goal is to get the goss of this message out as far as we

can. Now our church is located in Salmon Arm, British Columbia. So if if you're if you pray

that prayer and you're looking for a church or if you're new to the town, you're looking

for church, reach out to us. The information is in the show notes and I'd love to see you

come to our church on Sunday morning. If you're not nearby but you're looking for a church

body, then reach out as well because we have 3500 plus churches globally and I'm sure I

could find a good Bible leading church within our fellowship that you could go to. But the

goal is obviously if you've if you've given your life to Christ today is that you need

to pick up a Bible, start reading a Bible. You can do it even on apps on your phone.

Shouldn't cost you anything. Read the word, start praying to God, cry out to God with

your problems, your troubles, and find a church body to lock into and participate in because

that's really what the church is for. So again, I want to thank you. Remember to like, share

and subscribe. It really does help us to get this message out further and I can't wait

for you to come back next time. God bless.