A Second Chance

Well, it is awesome to see everybody this morning.

Um, and if I haven't had the chance to meet you, my name is Russ, and I'm one of the pastors here at Church at the Grove.

And and uh every Sunday, uh my desire is really uh for two specific things is I want I want people to experience the just the the warmth of the body of Christ, the warmth of the fellowship.

And and so uh when you come in, hopefully you're you there's somebody saying good morning, and we're glad you're here.

Um but but that in itself is not enough to change eternity.

So we we really want you to have an experience where you encounter Jesus.

And so um, and we do.

In our worship, the the gospel of Jesus is declared as we sing, and the gospel of Jesus um is is is declared.

That's our hope, that's our goal, is to declare it through the teaching of the Word.

And so we're in we're in a series um uh in the book of Jonah, and so if you want to go ahead and find that, um you you feel free to look at uh your table of contents if you have um your your paper leather edition or if you have an electronic Bible, um it might be a little bit easier to find.

Um it's it's a short book.

It's a short book, it's four four chapters, but there's a there's a lot to it.

There's a lot to it.

And um and I love this story.

It's one of my favorites, one of my favorite books, um, certainly in the Old Testament, in the whole Bible.

Um, but because Jonah, Jonah had this attitude, and I, you know, there's this theme we've been talking about, which is really this series, and I've taught this a few times, but this time the theme that you probably hear us coming back to over and over is the grace of God, the grace of God.

You can't outrun the grace of God.

And and so Jonah, Jonah tries to outrun the grace of God, but God just stays after him, he stays after him.

And and and Jonah's attitude is really not where it needs to be.

He has a negative attitude.

He has a um, I believe he he he he has an elitist attitude.

He has a bit of a nationalism kind of uh my ideology, you know.

Um God is is is really meant for for my people, and his people were the Jewish people, the Israelites.

And so um, why in the world would I want to go share um uh the good news of who our God is with a wicked people?

Like, and and and God calls him to go to the Ninevehes, and the Ninevites are among uh the worst.

I mean, they're they're just vicious and they're vile and they're murderers, and and I've shared a few things and I'll share a couple more uh just specific things that that are you know that are evidence of how how awful and and terrible they were.

But but here's the mindset of Jonah.

Jonah's like, I am part of God's people, and we are we are a holy people.

We are set apart.

God has has called us to be his special people, but but but that's not for everybody.

That's not for everybody, that's for us.

So he he obviously had not read a lot of what the prophets had written.

For example, Isaiah.

And if you want to do a little Bible study, is to go back in the Old Testament and look specifically for the number of places where God calls his people to be a light to the nations.

A light to the nations, meaning that, hey, my relationship with my people is not meant to exclude other nations or other people groups or other uh other ethnic groups or language groups or whatever it is.

We're not gonna, it's not meant to exclude, it's meant to be an example and and and a uh you're meant to be, you're you're meant to live your life in such a way that the Holy Spirit will use you to draw people into fellowship.

And so Jonah doesn't get this.

And he he he is he is he he is judging the Ninevites by a different standard than he would probably judge himself.

These people are bad, and and my people are good.

And and so there's there's a problem with that.

I mean, that's not the heart of God, that's not the heart of Jesus that we see Jesus demonstrating how he taught, how he how he led, how he discipled, how he um uh ultimately gave his life on the cross, was bodily resurrected, how he preached the kingdom, and how he gave the great commission.

Go make disciples of all what?

Nations.

All nations that were nations.

It's really um it means ethnic groups.

It's the word ethne.

And so it's all people groups, all language groups, all racial groups, all every everybody on the earth.

And so Jonah has this separate standard for himself, separate standard for how he views God's relationship with the Israelites.

And as a result, God says, get up, Jonah, this is verse 1, get up and go, tell the Ninevites that, hey, the wrath of God is gonna come if you don't if you don't turn and repent and believe.

And so what does he do?

He runs the other direction.

He doesn't want to go to Nineveh because they're the bad people.

They don't deserve the grace of God like I do.

Isn't that funny?

He doesn't deserve the grace of God like I do because I am one of God's people.

And he has forgotten what the grace of God is.

He's forgotten that he needed the grace of God as much as anybody else needs the grace of God.

And so he has he has this um he has this attitude, and so I this is this is this is not in my notes, but but this is something I want to, I just feel like I need to share.

So so um, you know, Jesus is found in every book of the Bible.

Jesus is found in every book of the Bible.

And so one of the one of the commentators that I came across uses the story of the two brothers.

Now we you you've heard of the story of the prodigal son, but the story is really about the prodigal sons.

There's two brothers.

There's two brothers, and if you read this, it's found in Luke 15, and and and the younger brother is the is what we call the prodigal son most of the time.

We we consider him the prodigal because he went and lived a wild life, squandering and wasting all the resources of his inheritance.

He he's he pretty much tells his parents, I wish you were dead, because I want my inheritance now.

And so he goes off.

And we typically call him the prodigal because he's the one that goes live wildly, but we forget that there's another son that stays home.

And he does the duty of every good son.

He obeys his parents, he is faithful to fulfill the duties, he is he is working the farm, he is obeying his mom and dad.

And so, uh, but but you know what?

His heart is probably a little bit more like Jonah's heart than it is a true child of God who is loving God and loving his parents and wanting to serve as a response to grace rather than serving to earn grace.

And so what I came across, and one of the commentators shared is that Jonah and the story of the two prodigals are really two stories that are very similar.

Because the first two chapters of Jonah, he says, Get up, Jonah, son of Amitai, go, go share, go, go tell the Ninevites that, hey, if they don't repent and believe, here comes the wrath of God.

And what does he do?

Does he obey God and head to Nineveh?

No, he goes as far as he can in the other direction, all the way to what they would have considered the end of the earth, according to what they knew at that time, and that was Tarshus around Spain.

And so he's traveling on a ship, and a storm comes, and and and long story, lot to it, but the the workers, the the sailors end up throwing him overboard at his request.

Throw me overboard.

And then they start referring to God rather than just a small g God, or rather than Elohim, which is a little more respectful use of the term that is translated God, they begin to call out to Yahweh, which is the Old Testament covenant name for God.

So Jonah becomes a sacrifice that leads to the conversion of all these sailors who really weren't even aware.

But man, they're like, there's a storm, somebody's done something wrong, and somebody's got to pay a price, which all sin has a price.

Sin always has a price.

And so Jonah becomes that sacrifice, and you think when he is swallowed by this great fish, he spit out on land, you think he would come out with a little bit of a different attitude.

And so the first two chapters, Jonah is the younger brother who is running as far away from God as he can.

The second two chapters, because what we're gonna see here in just a second, as a matter of fact, I and I'm I'm I'm uh you can if you want the notes there on the app, I will try to cover notes because some of you will not be able to function if you don't fill in blanks.

And I I get that.

Um and so uh and so the second two chapters, um, Jonah Jonah is given the command again.

Jonah 3, verses 1 and 2.

Jonah 3:1

So I'm sorry that I'm messing up the slides a little bit, but we'll we'll uh we'll get back on track here.

Uh it says the word of the Lord came to Jonah a second time, a second time, which which is thank you, God, for second chances.

You know that God gives you a second chance, he'll give you a third chance, he'll give you a fourth chance, he'll give you a fifth chance.

Thank God.

Thank you, Jesus.

He's given me a few chances.

And and and um he says, get up, go to the great city of Nineveh and preach the message that I tell you.

And so you think Jonah would have a different attitude.

His attitude would have changed.

Yes, God, I love you.

Thank you for your grace.

I'm going.

The Ninevites need the grace of God like I have it.

But he still has this bad attitude.

He still, he still, so so the first two chapters is parallel with the younger son in Luke chapter 15.

Luke 15 · chapter mention

The second two chapters, he takes on the attitude of the older son.

And the older son, when the younger son comes home, the father is waiting.

He's been waiting for that son to come home.

He's looking over the horizon and he sees his son.

And in the most undignified manner you can imagine, he pulls up his robe and runs.

Old men should not be running.

And so he runs and he throws his arms around his son.

And we've taught that.

There's so much to that.

Um and so the son, he says, kill the fatty calf, bring the robe, put the ring on his finger.

He's basically restoring him to the family.

And they come in and they're having the party.

But who's missing?

Who's missing at the party?

The older son.

Jonah, New Testament Jonah is standing out on the porch.

He doesn't want to come into the party.

The father goes out, says, why?

Why won't you come in and celebrate that your son has come home?

And he gives his dad the speech.

I've been faithful.

I've done everything you've asked me to do.

I mean, we've we've we've taught we've probably shared this speech before.

I know I have.

I've tried to, you know, when I've gotten in trouble about things, I always refer to all the good things I've tried to do.

And and he and so so the younger son is, I mean, the older son is giving his resume of faithfulness and goodness.

And he listen, when I say that he he is he is putting all his eggs into the goodness basket.

I had a conversation with a friend this morning.

We were talking about, you know, the places in life where we feel like, you know, I don't I don't need the gospel, I don't need religion, I don't need God.

I'm a good person.

I just if I I just need to be a good person.

Well, my question is, how good is good enough?

And how do you measure that?

And so the the the older son and Jonah and chapters three and four are a little bit parallel.

I and and and I hope uh you you could read that and look at that on your own.

But here's one of here's what I want to uh emphasize.

Here's the big idea for this morning.

And it should be, we'll throw that up on the screen.

The grace that found you is the grace that is sending you.

The grace that found you is the grace that's sending you.

And so the grace that found Jonah, that pursued Jonah, the grace that that would not let Jonah go, the grace that that allowed God to look beyond his bad attitude, beyond his prejudice, beyond all the negative things, to say, you know what, I you can still be used, and the grace that found you, that pursued you, that went after you, it's the same grace that is sending you, that I'm sending you with to take to the Ninevites.

And so in chapter one, week one, we said God called Jonah to Nineveh, but instead he went the opposite direction.

So we've talked about that.

Week two, last week, Jonah's rebellion didn't stop God's pursuit.

After Jonah was thrown overboard, God appointed a great fish to swallow him.

This was an act of discipline and grace, um, giving Jonah an opportunity to experience something that would hopefully change his heart.

And he did.

He cried out to God.

And he cried out to God like many of us would be in a crisis.

And God gives him a second chance.

And so today, Jonah gets the second chance to obey God's call on his life.

But to fully understand it, we need to understand the Ninevehes.

And we've covered this a little bit, but let me just go back over.

Nineveh wasn't just another nation.

It wasn't just another city.

It was the capital city of the Assyrian Empire.

And one of the most brutal and violent regimes probably in all history.

They were known for cruelty, violence, oppression.

And so Jonah, Jonah, his perspective about them was accurate as far as how bad their culture was, how awful they were.

But but from the perspective of the gospel of Jesus, they they it it to me it's a depiction of how much more they needed to hear the gospel and the grace of Jesus Christ.

And so they were uh they were known for their cruelty, violence, oppression.

Um Jonah didn't just resist God's call because he was afraid of Nineveh.

He resisted because he hated Nineveh.

There have been times where I've had conversations with people about world history, and I'll hear people say things something like this.

You know what needs to happen?

We just somebody needs to drop a bomb.

You know where I'm going with this, don't you?

Somebody just needs to drop a bomb over in the Middle East and just clear it out and start over.

And I'm just like the person who sits in our church says that, I'm like, that I I have been an awful pastor, if that's their perspective.

Because they miss out.

Every person, and we say this all the time.

Everyone's welcome.

Anything's possible.

Everyone matters.

And so everyone needs the grace of God.

All people group.

That's why we send missionaries.

That's why, that's why we're that's why there's still organizations like Wycliffe making sure that the scriptures are translated into a language where people can have the word of God and have the gospel of Jesus.

Because we we we listen, listen, we bear responsibility as the church.

When I say we, I'm talking about the church bears responsibility for getting the mission and the message and the gospel out.

God's desire is not to drop a bomb, to clear out a section of this world.

God's desire is to see missionaries obey God and take the gospel to these places.

Places where and listen, it doesn't take much for you to find this, but but God is working and bringing revival in some of these places where you don't you wouldn't hear about this on the news because they're closed countries.

But there's revival taking places in China, there's revival taking places in multiple countries in Africa, there's revival taking place in Central America, South America.

There's all places where God is moving in tremendously, powerful, tremendous ways.

And so we we can join in that, or we can be like Jonah or the older brother and just say, hey, let's just drop a bomb and clear it out.

That's not the heart of God.

That is not the heart of God.

And so the Ninevites were terrible people.

When they conquered a city, they would skin their victims alive as a public warning to other nations.

Um they would behead their enemies and and and they would stack their skulls in massive piles outside the city gates simply so people would know.

This is what happens to you if you don't surrender and submit and and and and give your allegiance to the Assyrian Empire.

I mean, that's those are horrible, horrible things.

They were known to do awful things to children.

Um I mean, some of these things I don't even want to say I don't want to say out loud.

And so, and so, you know, as I've said before, it's this idea of God asking Jonah to go preach in the midst of a very hostile place.

I I can't imagine what what he it would have been like.

But it but it would be the equivalent today of God sending you to the headquarters of ISIS or the Taliban and say, hey, you go into the middle of this area and you stand in the middle of this area and you preach the gospel, it's probably not gonna go well.

I mean, it it in the in the natural sense, according to our flesh.

Supernaturally, God could could move in a powerful way, and he and he has.

We see it in Scripture.

And so and so, what's the point?

The word of the Lord came to Jonah a second time.

This is a beautiful reminder of God's grace because he, in spite of his attitude, God decides I'm gonna keep using Jonah.

I'm not gonna, I'm not gonna give up for on him, I'm not gonna walk away from him.

We're gonna we're gonna continue to move forward.

And I love this.

Our failure doesn't cancel God's calling.

Our failure doesn't cancel God's calling.

We're never gonna be perfect.

We're not gonna, we're not gonna get it right in every way.

But God still chooses to use us.

And that is a beautiful thing.

And so, God, that's part of the good news of the gospel.

The enemy wants to shame us.

The enemy wants you to wallow in pain and guilt and shame to the point where you ignore the fact that He has a calling on your life.

We convince ourselves that we've missed an opportunity.

God focuses on our mistakes and our sins.

And it erases the purpose and the plans that God has for us.

We think sometimes we've crossed the line to a point where, hey, we're not useful.

We can't fulfill the mission.

And so many people in the church today have allowed their past and their current lives, relationships, lifestyle, sin to prevent them from walking in obedience to God's calling on their lives.

Doesn't mean, as I said, there's consequences for sin.

You can't, you know, just live your life the way you want to and think God's going to bless that.

But it does, it does demonstrate it and it does speak to the fact that God's grace is available.

And that when we walk in God's grace, we walk in freedom to live the way that He's called us to live.

And I have been set free by the gospel.

And the gospel and the power and the presence of God has set me free where I can, and in repentance and belief, I can choose to obey God.

Does that make sense?

Can I get amen from somebody?

Yeah, just hanging hang in there with us.

And so it's it's it's um, you know, I I'm I'm I'm directionally challenged, and if you you know want evidence of that, just ask my wife.

Um she she just knows how to find anything without looking at a GPS.

I everything I have to do, I have to have a GPS.

And so I hear this a lot in my driving.

Recalculating.

Recalculating.

But I'm thankful that there's a voice that lets me know that I'm being redirected back to where I need to go.

And that is that's the that's the work of the Holy Spirit.

Sometimes that's how the Holy Spirit's gonna sound.

Recalculating, recalculating, and so so listen, it I don't know where this quote came from.

I can't find, I looked, tried to look it up, the source, couldn't find it, but it's it's a great small quote.

It says, if you're not dead, God's not done.

If you're not dead, God's not done.

And so even after Jonah's rebellious heart, after he ran from God, God is not done with him.

Even with his chapter 3, chapter 4 older brother attitude, God's not done with him.

Look at verse 3.

Jonah got up and went to Nineveh according to the Lord's command.

And you know how this is how I picture Jonah getting up and and obeying God.

I mean, have you ever ever how many of you have a toddler or have had a toddler or have a toddler?

And and you they're gonna obey.

Right?

I mean, you they're gonna obey or else.

Sometimes it's like, oh, mommy and daddy, I love you.

See, we dream, that's a dream, by the way.

I love you because I love you.

I'm gonna obey and do everything you want me to do.

That that's that's that probably was a dream.

No, it does happen occasionally.

But this is this is the attitude sometimes.

I'll do it.

But I'm not gonna like it.

And so that that's what I picture with Jonah.

Now, Nineveh was an extremely great city, which meant it was a fairly large city.

It says it's a three-day walk, and Jonah set out on the first day of his walk in the city and proclaimed, in 40 days Nineveh will be demolished.

That's his message of the gospel.

Now that's that doesn't sound great, but that's that's that's the old, old um hellfire brimstone message, right?

The wrath of God is coming.

And if you don't turn to Jesus, you're gonna spend eternity separated from God in a place called hell.

And that, you know what, that message needs to be preached.

That is truth.

The wrath of God is real, it will be poured out on sin, on evil.

At some point in history, you know, the wrath of God will come.

And so Jonah finally obeys, you know, he probably stomps all the way to Nineveh.

And so imagine what he's dealing with.

The fear, the anxiety, uh, but he shares this message, and it's it's not it's not a profound, it's not a it's not an exegetical expository sermon, you know, where there's a lot of study involved.

It's like, hey, turn to God in 40 days, or you're gonna be demolished.

It's that simple.

And so, and here's the point.

You do not have to be, you do not have to wax eloquent, you do not have to be a theologian to share your faith.

You don't have to influence people through Bible knowledge.

Listen, the gospel is simple, and we have the Bible written in our language, multiple translations that help us understand the significance of how God spoke, how Jesus taught.

He doesn't need perfect words, he needs our surrendered heart.

Thank you.

He needs our surrendered heart.

Don't think that you don't have anything to offer.

Listen, every one of you have something to offer.

You say, don't think that God can't use you.

Don't you dare think that you don't have a voice.

Don't you dare think that you don't have influence.

Don't you dare think that there's not a call on your life.

Don't you dare think that you were born by chance or accident.

You God is sovereign.

He has a plan.

I joke all the time about I have a brother that's nine years older than me, and then I have a brother that's seven years older than me.

And so I came way down the line.

My I mean, you know, my parents just said, hey, you know what?

We want to take, we just want to spend, you know, these seven years with Butch and Eddie, and just really, and then we'll have another child.

That's no, I was, in the natural sense, I was not planned.

That's not what God says.

Exactly.

That is not what God says.

That is not, God had a plan for my life.

Maybe me standing right here today is is a part of that.

And so so look look at how God continues to speak with Jonah and what happens in this story.

So, verse 5, chapter 3, then the people of Nineveh believed God.

Then the people of Nineveh believed God.

I mean, can you you want to make you you've got to you want to see a toddler who's stomping, who obeys, and then still doesn't get what they want?

He he certainly is thinking, and we're gonna I'm gonna preach the wrath of God, and here it comes.

The wrath of God's gonna pour down on them.

They believed.

They believed.

They proclaimed a fast and dressed in sackcloth, the greatest of them to the least.

And the word reached the king of Nineveh.

He got up from his throne, took off his royal robe, covered himself with sackcloth, and sat in ashes.

Then he issued a decree in Nineveh by order of the king and his nobles, no person or animal, herd, or flock is to taste anything at all.

So there's this nationwide fast.

They must not eat or drink water.

Furthermore, both people and animals must be covered with sackcloth.

Everyone must call out earnestly to God.

Each must turn from his evil ways and from his wrongdoing.

Who knows?

God may turn and relent, and he may turn from his burning anger so that we will not perish.

God saw their actions, that they had turned from their evil ways, so he, so God relented from the disaster that he threatened them with, and he did not do it.

Wow.

And you might say, well, history has shown us that whatever happened at that point didn't last.

And I don't know that I have an answer for that other than even with God's people, even in our culture, in our in our generations that we've seen in the lifetime of our country, Monty read Psalm 78.

The responsibility is for us to make sure the next generation understands and experiences the same grace that we've experienced.

So somebody, somebody in Nineveh dropped the ball from one generation to the next.

They went back to their old ways.

That's me sharing what I imagine probably happened over thousands of years.

And so God worked, and here's here's here's what I want you to hear.

No one is too far gone for God's grace.

No one is too far gone from God's grace, and God will surprise you by who responds and who doesn't.

I'm telling you, if you took, if you'll take these next few weeks, Easter is April 20th, and almost anybody, almost, I think, almost anybody that's invited to church at Christmas and Easter will probably not necessarily show up, but they're not going to be offended.

Because they know they know Christians celebrate.

These are two two holy days, these are two significant times in the life of Christianity, Christmas and Easter.

So this is a great test opportunity.

Go to the person you expect would respond.

You expect the least to respond positively.

And you invite them to join you for Easter.

And invite them to come on Saturday night.

Because I need all of you to come on Saturday.

Saturday, 3 to 5.

I need everybody here that's here this morning to come on Saturday at 3 or 5.

You know why?

Because we're gonna see an outpouring of people.

So we've got services on uh and here at Walnut Grove at 3 and 5 on Saturday, 9 and 11, Sunday.

So let me get on my knees.

Please, please consider, consider coming on Saturday at 3 or 5.

So we can have space for all these people that you're gonna be talking with.

And I just want to tell you go to the person that you think is the least per least likely.

I was the least likely person.

My dad was the least likely person.

I mean, most a lot of my family are the least likely people to know the Lord.

Am I right?

Cousin Steve?

He knows we we have a messed up family.

And two of us are right here.

By the grace of God, Steve married Judy and brought normality to our family.

I love what Philip Yancey says.

You want to read?

You want to read about grace?

Philip Yancey writes, he's got one of the best books on grace.

And here's what he says: Grace means there is nothing we can do to make God love us more.

And nothing we can do to make God love us any less.

And so grace is for everybody.

Grace is for the Nineveh.

Grace is for 21st century people groups that don't like us.

Grace is is for is for everybody.

Jared Wilson says this.

He said, Grace is God's refusal, refusal to give up on you.

Grace is God's refusal to give up on you, so he doesn't give up on Jonah.

He doesn't give up on Jonah.

Jonah's the toddler stomping his way all the way to Nineveh.

And I honestly think I'm gonna obey God, but I know these people are not gonna turn to the Lord because they are so wicked.

And so he with joy preaches the hellfire and brimstone sermon and surprised by the way they respond.

Nobody's so far gone that they are beyond the reaches of grace.

Some of you are sitting here today and you identify, you say, Amen, because I I wouldn't be here if it wasn't for that kind of grace.

It's a grace that can change, change lives.

It's a grace that can change a community, it's a grace that can that can impact a church family to impact a community.

And so here's what I want to do.

Um back to the big idea.

The grace that found you is the grace that is sending you.

The grace that found you is the grace that's sending you.

So what we're gonna, we had a plan this morning.

We were all gonna we're gonna walk out together as a family, and and we're everybody's gonna get a stake.

So we're we're gonna do this next week because the rain was and and watch it, watch it not rain at all.

Um But I I knew that wouldn't be a pleasant experience for us to walk out in the rain.

Um and we were gonna pray surrounding the outline.

So we had we had uh the the um a surveyor come and outline the building.

So there's stakes out there.

We hadn't pulled the flags because we we we changed the schedule, changed what we're gonna do.

But but as you as you drive out today, just notice, just look at it, look at those where those stakes are, and you begin to see pictures.

You see the renderings of our the beautiful renderings that we have out in the lobby, the pictures that give us an idea.

But here's what I want us to do.

I want us to prepare for these next few weeks leading up to April 20th, that is Easter.

And so I want us to close with just some time in prayer.

Now, and I'm gonna ask it for some of you, if you're willing, you don't have to do this.

This is my suggestion, is if you could get together according to your neighborhood.

Now, that may not that may be really hard.

Um this another option is to get together as a community group.

If you've got some of your community group people that are here, um circle up with them.

Uh, if you've got some people that that live in the same area or you or you're on the same ball team, um, or or uh you have something in common.

A couple families get together, and I want us to spend a few moments praying over our community.

That God would bless our community, God would pour out a spirit on our community, that God would touch lives, that God would use us to raise the quality of life in our community, he would use our church ultimately that he would speak through us the good news of Jesus, the good news, this message.

Maybe our prayer needs to be God, change my heart.

Start with me, and instead of me having this attitude, um, that I would open up my arms, and I would consider the fact that God wants to use my mouth, my hands, and my feet to partner with him and what he wants to do in the lives of people in the place where I live, place where I work, place where I go to school.

It might be that you gather with with some classmates or people that you go to school with.

And so, so so um so can we do that?

Can we do that?

I'm gonna ask, Lord, would you would you work through this time, help us partner and group up with um some of the people that that you called us to do life with.

Maybe by neighborhood, by by school or um classroom or um community, what it what all these different commonalities that we have.

And God, let us spend a few minutes praying.

Uh let there be a spokesperson or a person that that would be willing to pray out loud in the group.

And God, um maybe out of this, maybe out of this, that some of these some of these groups would be willing to walk and pray, going through the streets and the neighborhoods that are closest to where we live and and where we worship here.

And so, Father, use this time.

God, use this time.

We cry out to you, asking you to work, and God, to see you pour out your grace on the people that probably are the least likely people in our minds, in our natural minds, the least likely people to join us for something like an Easter service.

God, use this time, it's in Christ's name we pray.

Amen.

All right, so thank you all so much.