Free to Allow My God to Work

[00:00:01] Speaker A: Thanks for tuning in to the Met Church podcast. Here at the Met, we are all about connecting people to God and one another. If you have any questions or want more information about what's happening here at the church, then head to our [email protected], we would love to stay connected with you throughout the week through social media, so be sure to connect with us on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. Now enjoy the message. [00:00:24] Speaker B: We're beginning a brand new series called free. I do believe it is the will of God for every one of his kids to live with a sense of freedom. In fact, the very first message that Jesus preached was recorded in Luke, chapter four, and it came in fulfillment of Isaiah 61, where he said, I've been anointed by God to preach freedom to the captives, to bring deliverance to those who are hurting. And when you follow the life of Christ, that's really the pattern. He comes into someone's world and where they have been blinded and they've been bound by oppression and all kinds of problems, he's in the business of setting them free. He said, if you know the truth, the truth will set you free. And I can tell you this morning, it doesn't matter how true the truth is, if you don't know the truth, it will never set you free. So when you're in a relationship with Christ, you have an opportunity to be free in every area of life where you feel encumbered or you feel bound. He's in the business of setting people free because there's so much things. There's so many things and so much going on on our world right now. I mean, I honestly don't know how people navigate through all the vicissitudes and the difficulties of life without having a relationship with God. I see them all the time, and I interact with people all the time who don't have a connection with the heavenly Father. And I know the difficulty that they face, and many of them will be honest with me and tell me about their struggles. And so, as hard as life can be, it's even more difficult when there's a disconnect between you and your creator. In fact, the narrative I want us to look at comes at actually the close of a dispensation at the end of an age. It's found at the very end of the Old Testament, before the New Testament actually begins. And it's interesting, because when Malachi is writing this narrative, he's writing as a contemporary to Nehemiah and Ezra. Now, to give you a backstory. So all of this can come together and make sense in your mind. We've been talking about Daniel the last several weeks, and Daniel opens with the idea that the people of God were carried captive by Nebuchadnezzar into Babylon. And there they served under an oppressive regime for a long, long time. And it was in Babylon that Daniel began to shine. He gained influence because of his commitment to Christ, even in a very negative and oppressive environment. And Daniel, as we talked about, served four different kings. He had incredible influence. And so when Malachi begins to write, he's writing at the period of time when the persian empire were allowing the jewish people to return to their homeland. The Book of Nehemiah deals with Nehemiah's calling to go back and build the walls of the ancient city and begin to build infrastructure so people could live there. So Nehemiah was a builder and an architect, a visionary. And so Nehemiah is working at the same time, Malachi is living and writing. And while Nehemiah is doing this, Ezra is on the scene, and Ezra is rebuilding the temple. He is rebuilding the temple because the temple represented that point where God would meet with his people. The temple represented the place where people would bring their offerings and bring their sacrifices. Where their tithes and offerings would be received was in the temple. And so the temple was essential to their everyday life. It was a very big part of worship. So you have these two men who are working with thousands of people as they are busy building and rebuilding the ancient city of Jerusalem. So when Malachi writes and you pick up the little book of Malachi, and you read the brief book he's writing about the spiritual condition of the people who had gone through all of that adversity. And it's not surprising when you read Malachi that the people were a little burnt on God. They were a little disillusioned with God. And it manifested itself in how they viewed God. For example, their worship was something that was not a joy anymore. It was more of gosh. It was more of something they had to do, not something they were getting to do. We have to go worship. It's time. There's an expectation. In fact, in chapter one, it said their worship had become weary. And in the king James, it says, they sniffed at it. We would say, in our vernacular, they just turned their nose up. Do I really have to go? Are you kidding me? Yes, you're the pastor. You have to go. That was that kind of story. So they were tired of worship. And not only that, it affect their giving. They knew what the law taught they knew that they were to bring a percentage of their income, their tithe, and above that income, their offering. And that was a part of their expression of gratitude to God, because it signaled that everything we have, we have because of God. And he doesn't want our resources. He wants our trust. And so they quit doing that. In fact, they didn't just quit doing it. When you read chapter one, let me tell you what they were doing in chapter one. They were bringing him an animal that had been killed in the field. We would call it roadkill. In Exodus 22, the Bible said, if you find an animal that's killed in the field, don't eat it. Duh. I guess he had to say that for the stupid people there that might have. So he said, don't do that. And then whatever you do, don't bring that as an offering, but instead feed it to the dogs. Clean it up and feed it to the dogs. That's what it was. Good. Well, what the people were doing, and that's according to Exodus 22, what they were doing is when they went out into the field to find an offering to bring to the worship that they dreaded. They were bringing an animal that had been killed in the field, literally dog food. Here go God. Here's a cannon. Alpo. And they were not bringing him their best. I mean, the offering symbolized and signified the coming of the Messiah. That's why they said, bring the best without spot or blemish, because that represents Jesus, who will one day come. And so I'm saying to your heart this morning that I understand where the people were. They were disillusioned, disappointed with God, and it brought about a disconnect from God that affected both their worship and their giving. And I can tell you I've mentioned this many times before, but when you go through a hard time in your life and I've gone through them in mine, it will invariably do one of two things. It will drive you closer to God. I would use this word, draw you closer to God, and then I would use that word here, or it will drive you farther from God. It's a dance. Him, you're a little close to him. You're not close to him. You feel like going? You don't feel like going? I'm going to give. I'm not going to give. I'm going to serve. I'm not going to serve. I'm going to mention him. I'm not mentioning him. I'm going to tell somebody about my faith. I'm not telling you do this weird dance. And it comes out of nine times out of ten it comes out of a heart that is disappointed with God. And again, I get that we have people who are a part of our church family. We have probably 3000 families that are a part. Do you know if everybody showed up that caused them at their church home, we could not get them in here. You could not grease and squeeze them in here if they all came at one time. And I know many of them and I meet some of them when I go to the grocery store. Hey, you. Yeah, you. I watch you online. No, you don't. But I am glad to see. I don't say that, but behind those faces and behind those situations are stories. And many of those people have gone through something that put them in a position that affected both their worship and their giving. And let me say I understand that we lost two navy Seals a couple of weeks ago. One of those Seals family is a part of our church. This morning I dealt with a family who just lost a grandbaby yesterday. I've been talking to that couple whose baby they were able to hold it for about 45 minutes before it left heavy. I got up to speak the message this morning and I'm looking out and I'm seeing another family who's dealing with a terminal illness in their home right now. And they're fighting back tears as they've come to worship. I'm just saying, folks, I get it. People go through things in life that are heartbreaking, heart rendering, rending, and I'll be honest with you, makes no sense. If you're going through a difficult time in your life and you come to me as a pastor and ask me to help you make sense of it, I'm going to disappoint you because I may be as clueless as anybody on why you're going through what you're going through. God seldom explains himself. I'll be honest with you. There's so much of life that is not fair, that makes no sense. The people of God were carried away captive into Babylon by Nebuchadnezzar. And Daniel and his buddies are caught up in all of that. And I'm sure the overall idea, God had a plan and a purpose. We know it looking back. But at the time when they were living it, it didn't make sense to them. And for four different kings, they're under the oppressive rule, knowing that God came to set them free and he's promised them something that they are not experiencing. And so there's a sense of disappointment in God, a sense of disillusionment with God. And a lot of people go there, and they don't come back from there. But here's what I know about God. I've learned this. If you belong to him, you can go away, but you can't stay away. What do I mean by that? Sooner or later, with arms of love, through the circumstances of life, he'll bring you home. He'll bring you home. If you belong to him, you can go away. But the shepherd, the illustration Jesus gave us, he'll leave the 99 to go after one that went astray. He'll bring them back. You remember the story of Simon Peter, who thought Jesus calling him away from his successful business into a life of service. And he thought Jesus was going to overthrow the roman empire. He had read prophecies about the Messiah. When he comes, you'll establish his throne on the earth. And he mistook the first coming of Jesus with the second coming. Simon didn't realize that the first coming of Jesus, he would come to suffer and die on a cross, to be raised again on Easter. And then his second coming would be to rule and reign in a millennial reign, and then in eternity in heaven one day. So he confused his theology. Even the best of people can get confused. And so, in that disillusioned state, when Jesus goes to the cross, Simon Peter said, I'm done. I've had it. Have you ever felt that? Were you just done? Just done? I've told you before, I've resigned so many times, I just didn't tell you guys about it. I heard about that bitter pastor. He had a hard situation, and he got up to resign. And he said, I've resigned today as your pastor. He said, I don't feel that you love me because I hadn't been paid in weeks. He said, I don't feel that you love each other because I never marry any of you. Here's bitterness. He said, I don't even think God loves you because none of you ever die. He said, I go to a far better place than this. Come Monday morning, as I become chaplain at the state penitentiary, he said, where I go, you cannot come now, but I go to prepare a place for you. That's a bitter man. I'm just saying we can. All right, we can understand that. There's not a soul in this room, if you've lived as long as we've all lived, that hasn't gone through points in time where you've been disappointed and disillusioned at God, when you've gone through things that absolutely make no sense, that are unfair. I mean, couldn't God make a healthy baby as easily as he did a sick one? I processed that with our granddaughter. We had her for nine months before she died. Couldn't God touch and heal Cindy? Doesn't he do that? Didn't his word say that? I mean, aren't there people that have experienced that and he didn't do it? That's why I'm not hard on people when they go through periods of time where they pull away and they pull back. I understand it. We really have bought the vows and we have solved the puzzle that everything in life does not make sense. It is not my understanding of God, but my trust in him that keeps me going. I have to believe that God is too good to do wrong and he's too wise to make a mistake, or I can't function, not in this capacity. I'm just suggesting when you drop into the narrative of Malachi and you see these people disconnecting and they're not worshiping and they're not giving all that, it's rooted in something. It's not rooted in rebellion. Sometimes that is the reason we just aren't going to do it. We get petulant. But a lot of that was just rooted in disappointment. They were just deeply disappointed in God. And when Simon Peter decided he would walk away from God in John 21, what was powerful about that is Jesus waits on the shoreline for him. He calls out to him, Simon is fishing now. When Simon had said in John 21, I'm going fishing now. There's nothing wrong with going fishing. I've heard people who find this bone and try to build a dinosaur here. That's not what he's talking about. There's no sin in fishing. Fishing, for Simon Peter represented what he did before he met Jesus. Remember, he was a professional fisherman. So what he was saying in context is, I'm going to go back and I'm going to do what I did before I ever met Jesus. Done. I'm going back to my old life. And he did. So he's out fishing, by the way. Jesus knew where he was. Sometimes people go through things in life and they don't think God knows. Listen, he knows who you are. He knows where you are. Some of you watching online, or you will watch. You've given up on church. But there's something that drew you to this message this morning. You're watching by divine design. There's something God would have you to hear. And God has a way of reaching out to people. And he has a way of calling out to people, and he knows where you are, he knows what you're thinking. I told a person one time that was angry. They were disappointed, kind of what I'm describing this morning. I said, have you told God about it? You know what they said? I couldn't say that as though he doesn't know. I said, one of the things we talk about is the sovereignty of God, which means he knows everything. You know why you pray? Because you need to get it out of you and you need to press it toward him. It demonstrates my dependence upon God. No, a better word, an interdependence on God. Because after you pray, you put feet to your prayer. So it's not just a dependency, it's not independence, it's an interdependence. And so sometimes, guys, the best thing you can do is tell if you're mad, pray a mad prayer. If you're disillusioned, just pray a confused prayer. If you don't know what to say, say nothing. The Holy Spirit will interpret the confusion of your heart with groans that can't be uttered. And he'll say, father, here's what they're trying to say. They just can't put it into words. But it's good psychology and it's good theology to get it out of you, because as I've told you before, if you'll just speak it and get it out of your heart, you may not believe what you hear yourself say. Sometimes it's rebellion, sometimes it comes from a heart of hurt. When you look at what was happening in the life of these people, they had disconnected from God. I think many of them were disillusioned. I think many of them were wondering what God was up to. And so when you read chapter one, it really colors the rest of it for you. And I'm going to paraphrase it, because for time's sake, I'm just going to give you. I'm not going to go into all the narrative, but trust me, if you'll read this, you'll see everything I'm telling you is in there. First of all, it affected, as I said, their offerings. They weren't giving as they used to give. Instead, they were bringing the animals that were found killed in the field. They were just bringing God dog food. And the second thing they were doing is their worship wasn't authentic. They turned their nose up and they sniffed at it. What's interesting about worship, folks, is we bring worship with us. I understand when people says, I'm going to church to get my worship on. There's nothing wrong with that. I get it. But worship, please hear me. Worship is not where, Sunday is not where your worship commences. Sunday is where your worship continues. As children of God, we come in the room worshipping because we have such a consumer mentality. We feel like worship becomes more about us than about God. Praise is up and happy, and it's giving adolation to God. Worship is the heart, and we have connection and intimacy with God. But worship is. Worship isn't about us. In fact, in fact, in chapter one, you know what God said? I'm not going to receive your worship. Whoa. Did you know it's possible to worship in such a way that God won't receive it? He just says, look, I know you're singing and I know you're going through the motions, but what do you think I am? Am I going to accept your alpo offering and your heartless worship and think that's going to. Who do you think I am? I know you. I created you. I know your heart. We're not good right now. Let me explain that. There are two things that will keep you connected to God. One is your relationship to him. And I believe that to be eternal. I can support it, but I would give you two verses to think about it. John three, to Nicodemus, you must be born again. NicoDemus to God. How does a man be born again? Are you meaning physically born? And Jesus said, no, it's like a physical Birth. Meaning that that which is born of flesh is flesh. Physical Birth is a Physical. It's not reversible. And conversely, that which is born of spirit is spirit. Just as your physical birth cannot be reversed, it's emphatic. So your spiritual birth cannot be reversed. It's emphatic. Ephesians one said, you are now sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, meaning the Holy Spirit seals you in the deal, and before you can lose it, the seal has to be broken, and God will not violate his own word. So relationship, that's not what happens when you get disillusioned and it affects your worship and your giving. Here's what happens. Fellowship gets broken. Everybody's in a relationship, or you've been in a relationship. There's been times in your relationship, if you'll think about it, when the relationship was solid, you're married to this person. They're your child. But the fellowship wasn't so hot right now you love this person, but you do not like them. I'm not looking at anybody. This morning. I'm looking at your foreheads right now. So if you elbow him, I will not even see that. My point is, we get it. What happens when the relationship is strained? There's tension, right? You can feel it. You've been around a couple that aren't getting along. You got tension. It's there. You can almost cut it with a knife. Don't you love those people that love to argue in front of your friends? Dear God, they only do that one time with me and I will saturate their presence with my absence. Tension. You have tension. And then not only tension, but the communication is not good. It will snide remarks and they're cutting if there's any at all. Sometimes there's no communication. And there's no sweet notes getting written. There's no flowers getting bought. Nobody's buying anybody chocolates. And if you want a hot breakfast, put your cheerios in the microwave. You know what I'm saying? We all know that. Why we're in a relationship with someone, we're out of fellowship with them. And it affects all that that happens with God. Maybe it's rooted in disillusionment. Maybe it's rooted in disappointment. Maybe it's rooted in a dream that wasn't realized. Whatever reason, all of a sudden it's affected all of that. There's silence. I don't pray. There's distance. I'm here, but I'm not really here. And when I do worship, it's not really about him. It's more about me and my experience. And if I'm feeling it, it was good. And if I'm not feeling it, then God wasn't even there. Because I didn't feel it. Because again, it's about me, not about him. And I've told you, I've worked through that before, man. I've done messages. Honest to God, I've done messages when I felt like I ought to be out in the lobby apologizing to people who came and sat through that. I really have felt like that. This might be one of them. I hope not. But really, I have really done that where I thought, good gosh, I hope they come back next week and give me another shot. I really felt like I just bombed. And invariably, when that happens, I'll have somebody walk up to me in the lobby and they'll say, so sweetly, you said something in that message that really touched my life deeply. And all of a sudden, the Holy Spirit slips alongside me and says, hey, big boy, why don't you swallow your pride? It ain't about you, boo. Me and God have that way of talking. It's not about you. It's about what I'm trying to do through you. If you'll swallow your pride and let me, then I realize, wow. It's not about my experience. It's about what God can receive through me. Because I want to bring worship that he'll receive. I want to bring an offering that he'll bless. I'm not going to bring him less than the best. He's called for the best. And finally, there's an epiphany. I mean, there's a moment that they have where they realize I'm not where I'm supposed to be. God, you're over there, and I'm way over here. And how did this happen? Do you know what doesn't happen? Here's what I think. I think when we drift away from God, it's not a sudden, catastrophic, cataclysmic event. It's a drift. A drift. It's like a relationship. If you could do the things you did when you first attracted her, if you could continue to do that after you've gotten her, the relationship would be so much healthier and better. But we drift. And I think, guys, the enemy doesn't fill our hearts with hatred of God. He fills our hearts with forgetfulness of God. We just don't love him like we used to. We're not as passionate as we once were. We drift. Hebrews two. The Bible says, be careful, lest the things that you've been taught drift. It's a nautical term. It's a nautical term. He uses the idea of bringing a ship to shore. And you drop the sails, you cut the power, you pull the oars in, and you think that the ship, under its own volition, will somehow reach the shore without sails, oars, power or rudder. And instead, we all know what happens is it drifts. And you never drift to the right place. You never drift to the right shore. You drift away. It's gradual. And all of a sudden, you recognize one day that there's distance. I don't feel I'm hearing from God. I'm suffering from lack of blessing from God. There's financial stress in my house, and there's pressure around me. And I began to look. And I realize, man, I have allowed myself to get away from God to the point that I've disqualified myself from receiving the blessings that he has for me. Man, you look in his word, and you see what God desires to do in his people. And it's astounding. I love what he said when he said, look, which among you, who among you has a son or a daughter? If he came and he asked for bread, would he give him in turn Matthew seven, would he give him a stone? The kid comes and says, I'm hungry. I'd like a chickfila sandwich. And you pick up a handful of gravel and say, chew on that. Or if he comes, he went on to say, and asks for fish, would you give him a serpent? And then Jesus goes on to explain his analogy. He says, if you who are of the earth know how to give good things to your kids, how much more does your heavenly father want to give good gifts to you? What am I saying? The heart of God is to bless his kids. He wants to bless now he'll bless us only at the level that we can handle it. Some people are blessed with more because they've proven faithful, that they can handle more, some people with less because they haven't quite passed the test. And so God will not put more on us than we're able to handle. He's a loving father and so he won't bless us beyond our capacity to receive it. And so he blesses his kids in different ways at different levels, in different seasons. And so I'm just suggesting it is the heart of God for his people to be blessed. And the people of God weren't experiencing that. And it went back to where the train jumped the track. There was a disconnect from their father, and they're like, how do we fix this? And here's the principle of Malachi Three, particularly as it pertains to their giving. He says, the point of return is the point of departure. You can't ignore the issue that caused the separation and think it's going to go away. Just like a relationship, ignoring a problem in your marriage won't fix it. Sooner or later you're going to have to circle back to the thing that's created the tension and say, let's attack the problem together. Let's don't attack each Other. And what happens? Man, the devil is strategic. He'll get you fighting one another instead of the problem that's created the issue between one another. So keep the focus on the problem and not each Other. And so it happens in your relationship with God. So you go back to the point of departure, that disappointment, that disillusion. Own it. Tell him about it. Allow him to heal your heart from it. You remember when Israel left Jerusalem to go into Babylon in Psalm 137, the Bible says psalmist records this, where the people of Babylon said to the Jewish people, sing us one of the songs of Zion. You people who know God, you're so happy ANd joyful. You sing and you worship. And we're drawn to that. We don't have that. We don't understand that. So sing us one of the songs. And here's what they said. How can we sing the Lord's song in a strange land? And then it says, we wept when we remembered. Here it is the point I wanted to make. When we hung our harps on the willows as we left Jerusalem. Get the imagery? There was a time when they sang. They had harps, they had instruments. But because they were disillusioned with God, they hung those harps on the willows, and they walked on without an instrument to be able to make music. What's my point? The point is they got to go back to the willow to get the instrument so they can make music again. The principle is sometimes you have to go back to the point of the problem and say, right here, God, this right here is why you and I disconnected. I realize that's it. When that happened to me, when I lost that or I lost them, when I went through that, there was something that was broken in me that affect my worship. It affect my giving, it affect my serving. And things have not been right since then. And God says, the point of return is the point of departure. And I want to reconnect with you. Now let me say as I close, I'm not saying when you go back to that point that it'll all suddenly now make sense. I've told you before, I told this family who just lost that baby. I said, there are mysteries in life. And please hear me. There are mysteries in life that will never be resolved this side of heaven. Never. Isaiah was saying, God, why? This isn't why. Why? God makes no sense. Isaiah. You read it replete throughout Isaiah. And finally, you know what? God finally answers him. And here's what he said. Isaiah, as high as the heavens are above your head, and high as the clouds are above your head, so high are my thoughts above yours. Here's what God was saying. He was saying, you're not capable to comprehend everything that I'm doing. I'm just giving you a paraphrase. Isaiah, trust me in this. Trust me. Can you trust God enough to take your disappointment in him and with him and lay it at his feet and say, God, I know it won't make sense, and I know I won't get an explanation, but I choose to trust you. This is my second closing, so I'm done with this one. Really done. The best illustration I can give you is the one that I shared with you a couple of times after Cindy went to heaven. Let me close here. I went through a period of time really trying to connect dots and understand why. And I had people say, well, you know, Bill, one day when you get to heaven, you'll be able to sit down with God and you'll be able to ask him why these things happened and why you went through that, and God will be able to set with you at some level. That's comforting to think I could set with God and kind of talk it out with him. There's a song that says, we'll talk it over, the by and by. We'll talk it over, my lord and I. I'll ask for reasons, and he'll tell me why when we talk it over in the by and by. But there's a lot of us down here. There's a lot of us been born since Adam, and I know we're going to be in heaven for eternity, but do you really think heaven's going to turn into A-Q-A session with God, where multiplied countless millions of us are going to get facetime with him to go through the tiny minutiae of everything in our life? Not that it's not important, but do you think that's how it's going to go down? I couldn't square that circle. So here's where I landed. I landed with this thought, and this is what I shared with you. And I shared again with you. Hope it helps you. I realize that I'm not perfect. My brain is not. I mean, scientists tell us we function still on just a very low capacity. What our brain is actually capable of functioning on, it just is a reality of living in a fallen world. But John in third, john says, beloved, it does not yet appear what we shall be, but we know that when we shall see him, we will be like him, for we will see him as it is. Meaning that one day, in the presence of God, I'm going to be in a perfect body, skinny and handsome. I'm going to have a perfect mind. I'm going to have the mind of Christ. I don't have that here, but I'll have that there. And I told you, and many of you remember I told you that what I believe my first reaction will be when I get to heaven in a glorified body and a glorified mind. With all the questions I have here, on earth will simply be this. Okay, we're good. In that perfected state, I'll know what I don't know here. I'll understand what I don't understand here. And I'll be so happy in heaven that I trusted my savior, who loved me enough to leave the splendors of heaven and go to a cross and pay for my sin. He would have gone to the cross if I'd been the only person on the earth to redeem. He loved me that much. And if a God could love me that much to give all that he had, his only begotten son, how can I not love him enough to say, I trust you. You are worthy. You're worthy of my worship. When I don't feel like it, I'm going to worship you because you're worthy. Worth and worship come from the same root word. And when you worship, you're saying, you're worth it. You're worth it. And I'm going to bring you my offering because I'm going to realize, Lord, I have what I have because you. And I'm going to give you a portion of what you've blessed me with, and I'm going to honor you through my gifts. And I'm going to see if Malachi three happens, if he will not open the windows of heaven and pour out blessings that there will not be room to receive. I pray that for me. I pray that for you. I pray it for us all. Let's pray. Father, thank you for your word that never returns. Void. It always hits the mark and the purpose for which you sent it. I pray for my friends. Most people in this room are broken over something. We're all broken, just in different places and over different things. So when we come into this place, we bring our broken selves into this room, realizing we need you. I pray for my friends right now who are pushing into you and drawing to you in their heartache and some this morning that are fighting the tendency to be driven from you. Wherever they are, I pray they'll know on that spectrum, there is a loving God that cares for them more than they could imagine. You're gently calling them home. Trust me. You say trust in the Lord with all your heart. Lean not on your own understanding, but in all your ways. Acknowledge him, and he'll make your paths straight. Give us a greater trust of you. Help us to honor you with all that we do. And finally, Lord, I pray for my friends, who may never have trusted you as savior, that this might be the moment, wherever they are, whenever they're hearing this service, this would be the moment when they just simply pray a prayer like this and say, Lord Jesus, with all that I know about me, I now trust all that I know about you. Come into my heart, forgive my sin, be a reality in my life, and I'll forever praise you in your presence. In Jesus name, amen. [00:35:15] Speaker A: Thank you so much for tuning in today. If you have any questions or prayer requests, please contact us by visiting metchurch.com so that we can follow up with you this week. We look forward to seeing you next week. Close.