If you ever had your portrait done, if you ever had a portrait painted of you, did you like it? Was it a good one? Did you feel like the artist Captured who you are and did it look enough like you that you felt like, okay, that's a that's a good enough portrait Portraits have been in the news quite a bit lately with all the hubbub over the Da Vinci code Who was the model for the Mona Lisa? Was it a maybe Da Vinci himself? What's behind that smile and the last supper? Is that really John? It's supposed to be Mary Maglin. Why is John looks so effeminate? Portraits. Portraits have been in the news a lot. Do you know what the record ever paid for a portrait was? No, of course. You know, that's why you pay me the big money to tell you this stuff. The record was two years ago May a Portrait by Picasso. I don't know if I art to know what you really call what Picasso did a portrait But he did a painting called boy with a pipe so for a hundred and four million dollars two years ago 104 million I'm about portraits this morning because this passage that we're about to look at is a study in Sanification. It's a portrait of a growing Christian Artists talk about line and color and perspective and value and contrast Dimension proportion Peter is going to talk a lot about character qualities this morning So if you will read along with me from second Peter chapter one versus five through nine We'll have the words up here on the screen for you or if you got your own Bible if you want to use that Bible right in front of you I think it's on pages 1893 and 1894 we want to make it as easy as we can for you to get into that Bible and know where we are what we're talking about second Peter chapter one verses five through nine Peter rights For this very reason make every effort to add to your faith goodness and to goodness Knowledge and to knowledge self-control and to self-control perseverance and to perseverance Godliness and to godliness brotherly kindness and to brotherly kindness love For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ But if anyone does not have them He is near sighted and blind as forgotten. He's been cleansed from his past sins. We pray with me
Heavenly Father again Thanking you for this word these words from your word that your word is eternal That it's living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword and it gets right down in here where we live Father We thank you for the truth of your word. We thank you for the grace of your word We ask you now Father that you will take this word and apply it to our lives Well, we've been stiff-necked Pracus We've been broken heal us Use this word to mold us and to shape us and to change us and conform us more and more into the image of Jesus the living word and whose name I pray I'm in Well use the word sanctification. What is it? I've told you all before if every user word like that I don't unpack it You have my permission to throw rotting fruit or other soft Projectiles my way, please what is sanctification the Westminster shorter Catechism, which I'm sure all you have with you this morning says that sanctification is a work of God's free grace whereby we are renewed in the whole man after the image of God and made more and more Enabled to die and to sin and to live under righteousness and you say I'm not sure that's any clearer yet Let me give you my definition. It's a lot shorter and simpler sanctification. It's just the process of becoming more and more like Jesus Sanification is simply the process of being conformed more and more in the image of Jesus. This is a study in Sanification. It's a portrait. It's not the only one. It's not an exhaustive one. There's there are things that Peter doesn't say that he could There are other portraits in scripture. This is a portrait of a growing Christian and it's loaded So dive in with me if you will. I'm going to take this in sort of a who-what-why-how-type fashion, okay? First of all, I want to talk about the why of sanctification why be concerned about becoming more Christ-like Peter says here in verse five for this very reason Make every effort To add to your faith goodness and to goodness knowledge and so on for what reason? If you still got that Bible open won't be on the screen if you still got that Bible open just raise your eyes up to verse three We talked about this about three weeks ago last time. I preached Verse three his divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of him Who called us by his own glory and goodness? Through these his given us his very great and precious promises So that through them you may participate in the divine nature and skate the corruption of the world caused by evil desires because Why be concerned about sanctification about becoming more Christ-like because Verses one through four told us. This is just review of what I said through these two because we know who we are We know what we are we know what we have and We know whose we are so therefore we want to become more sanctified more set apart for guys good purposes more holy Holy holy holy Lord God Almighty more conformed to that image more Christ-like We know Who we are what we are what we have we know who's we are we know what it cost God To reclaim us from the scrap heap it cost him the life of his only son We'll talk more about this knowledge in just a couple of minutes the ducks have a church Do you know that the ducks they have a church and the duck pastor gets up one morning He says he says my my fellow ducks and they all say we're here for you pastor He says ducks You have wings and all the ducks say amen He says ducks you can fly and they all shout preaching He says ducks you can soar and they all sing out hallelujah and then they all waddle home I think the world looks at us like that sometime we talk a good game We talk of your game about being Christ-like But I think ladies and gentlemen, they don't see us living the life. I think that's why there isn't more Hunger for the gospel they're hungry for it. They just don't know it when they look at us They don't see us they don't see us living the life as I encourage and it managed every Sunday And I include myself on this they don't see us living the life look if we want to make an impact on our world In our community In our own family It's not enough just to be able to out think and out talk the non-Christian world. That's getting easier by the day As the world gets increasingly the non-Christian world gets increasingly silly and shallow and consumed with the trivial it's not at all difficult to out think and out argue them But if we want to make an impact We want to win the war not just not just win the argument. We kind of outlive them folks We've got to outlive them and that requires growth in grace in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ It requires our growing sanctification That's a little bit about the why of sanctification. Let me talk for just a minute about the how The sanctification how do we grow more Christ-like again? If you look back up at verse three his divine power has given us everything we need For life and God in us now in the end of verse four through these he has given us His great and precious promises so that through them you may participate in the divine nature and escape the corruption In the world caused by evil desires and I told you three weeks ago. I don't feel much like an escapee From the world's corruption it's evil desires. I don't feel like I've slipped from the bondage of it very much And if I don't go looking for it it comes looking for me through my television set through my computer screen right in the metro rail If I don't go looking for it it comes looking for me, but God's word says that I have escaped And even though I don't necessarily feel it or experience it if God's word says it. I believe it God's word is sovereign over me, but it doesn't happen totally passively You parents will understand this I was looking at my daughter Allison last week and yes I said Allison not Savannah so it's not to confuse you I looked at my daughter Allison last week standing next to Heidi and she'd grown a foot in the week we're gone And I looked at I said you're getting so tall. I wanted to stop immediately You see this mouth says we can't help it daddy You know there is that aspect of our growth and I'm a true that God alone oversees and super intense and God supervises and it goes on almost without or even knowing it, but there's also that aspect of our sanctification in which we get to participate Louis Berkoff in his classic work on System Atheology called sanctification a work of God in which believers cooperate The classic passage on that I suppose the most succinct statement as when Paul writes in Philippians 2 12 and 13 therefore my dear friends Continue to work out your salvation in this sense. It's synonymous with sanctification continue to work out your salvation With fear and trembling knowing It is God who works in you both to will and to act According his good purpose You cooperate, but it's God who supplies the fuel and energy and the fire and the ability For you grow and grace in the knowledge of Jesus. That's a little bit about the the why and the how now I want to talk about the What the sanctification this is where we're going to spend the bulk of the time this morning, okay the what the sanctification What does this look like we're going to fill that portrait in now a little bit with some color and some line and some dimension some perspective When you talk about your extreme makeover look at verse 5 For this very reason and make every effort to add to your faith goodness And to goodness knowledge And to knowledge self-control and to self-control perseverance and to perseverance godliness and to Godliness brotherly kindness And a brotherly kindness love talk about a steep hill to climb Folks a sermon is not just a word study with an introduction at conclusion But when Peter when any biblical writer in this case is Peter does what he's doing here He wants us to pay very close attention to these words these Ideas these principles he's putting in front of us. So we're going to do some work study this morning I'm going to use the screens a little bit so guys stay with me, okay? Because now some of this it's it's it's dense. It's deep It's it's tough to hang with but if you stay with me I think you'll agree that the payoff is worth it. Let's just look at these words And I'm going to describe them and try to illustrate them briefly as we go. First of all, there's faith Faith the Greek word is pistis Faith pistis and let me just say this about the Greek font and this thing about the only thing I can say about it It's better than if I wrote it myself Other than that. It's not very good. So I apologize any of you who remember your Greek alphabet from your college days I know this is not great Faith Hebrews 11 was the classic definition of faith now faith is the assurance of things hope for the conviction of things Not seeing this is not some idle sterile academic assertion of something that you acknowledge to be true, but has nothing to do with your life If I were to tell you that Barbie you know the doll that Barbie's real name is Barbara Millicent Roberts If I were to tell you that cows cannot walk downstairs If I were to tell you that Walt Disney was afraid of mice would you believe me? Of course you believe me because I'm your pastor You know I would never intentionally mislead you some of you three weeks ago right here. I told you some of you That the Miami would be world champions some of you didn't believe me After that second game in Dallas some of you doubted that Midway through the fourth quarter of game three many of you jump ship you know who you are I forgive you I'm not mislead those things are true Barbie's real name is Barbara Millicent Roberts cows cannot walk downstairs If the cows are after you run down the stairs you're safe Walt Disney was afraid of mice You can say okay, I believe that so what it costs you nothing to believe that that's not faith folks some Steril academic assertion of yeah, I guess that's true faith is something you build your life upon I Read where somebody said a belief is something you'll argue about a conviction is something you'll die for That's what faith is it's the oldest illustration in the book ending you and I use this when we were in utero the difference between real faith and Just idle assertion as a tightrope walker that runs the wire across Niagara Falls. This is based on true story He runs the tire the wire across Niagara Falls from US to Canada and the crowd gathers and he walks across it and back and everybody cheers Then if it's a wheelbarrow on it takes the wheelbarrow across Niagara Falls and back and everybody cheers and he says how many do you believe? I can put a person in this wheelbarrow and take him or her across Niagara Falls and back and hundreds of hands went up in the air He said okay, who's first? I see they said they believed it, but did they really? There's a difference between an idle assertion. Yeah, I think that's true versus something. I'll build my life upon You may believe there was a man named Jesus in Nazareth you may believe that he walked Palestine 2,000 years ago and then he taught some great things and then he did some wonderful miracles You may believe all that and it's just an idle assertion to you But let me ask you a question Have you placed your trust in him and in him alone for your eternal soul? Have you said before God? I Received Christ as my Lord. I receive the payment he made for me on the cross And when I stand before God when he calls me home, I will say nothing but I Plead the blood of Christ My good works is pitiful and as few as they are add nothing I plead the blood of Christ for my eternal salvation. You say you believed there was a man named Jesus had you gotten in that wheelbarrow That's the difference between real faith and idle academic assertion Peter says make every effort to add your faith godliness godliness is the word and Greek a rette a rette It means literally moral excellence. What is Good what is morally excellent? A song with a friend the other day about what makes parenting such a challenge today Now it's probably just a Generational conceit, but I think parenting is tougher today, and I don't misunderstand me some of you that are older I know what my parents grew up with and my grandparents I don't want to go through a great depression I want to go through a World War two or a Korean war I don't want to do any of those things But what makes parenting such a challenge today is that there is no longer any moral consensus in our country But what is right? What is wrong? There is it used to be you could say certain things were right period certain things were wrong period and there really was no debate That is no longer the case Now everything seems to be up for grabs in our culture Plato wrote this since about 400 years BC if you ask What is the goal of education in general the answer is easy that education makes good men and That good men act nobly Hey, you teachers. How far would I get if I introduced that at your next meeting? Education the goal of education is to make good men because good men act no, but you know what they'd say isn't I said that? How sexist of you good men and Who are you to say who's good and Plato was a white European male anyway? He's lower than Ponskum. That's what would happen if I tried to give you that definition today You know that's true You don't need to be convinced, but let me give you two examples from last week Second great girl New Jersey wanted to sing Rich Mullins awesome God had an after school talent show The district superintendent for their township Objected on the grounds that the song was too graphic and too violent Rich Mullins awesome God You probably heard this one. This one made some news Brittany McComb valedictorian of foot hill high school Clark County Nevada stood up at her graduation to speak she was valedictorian by virtue of the fact she had a 4.7 grade point average all Pawsman will all just collectively hate her Brittany McComb valedictorian a few paragraphs in your speech the school administrators cut the microphone Why did she curse did she tell some off-color joke? Did she insult her teachers or her classmates? Did she advocate the violent overthrow of the government? no Brittany McComb valedictorian A foot hill high school Committed the egregious sin of attempting to thank God and her Lord Jesus Christ She said and I'm quoting I want you four years of school at foot hill and they taught me logic and they taught me freedom of speech God's the biggest part of my life just as other valedictorian think their parents. I want to thank my Lord and Savior No longer tolerable by the ACLU and they are behind this and the politically correct thought police There is a collapse a disintegration of the moral consensus folks, please please don't misunderstand I am not saying this was ever a Christian nation. It was not But it was founded upon Judeo Christian values and there was a moral consensus on those things That time is gone. I have a strong suspicion. I'll never be able to prove it I have a strong suspicion that Brittany McComb had stood before that microphone Wearing a veil and said Allah Akbar only God is great. I suspect they would not have protested I'll never know that but I know this 750 years before Jesus walked the earth The Hebrew prophet Isaiah said Wode those who call good evil and evil good Who substitute darkness for light light for darkness who substitute sweet for bitter and bitter for sweet Wode those who are wise in their own eyes and clever in their own sight and you say, okay smart guy So what is good? I'm not smart enough to tell you what's good, but one of Isaiah's buddies probably a man Micah Walk in the same time he he defined it pretty well. He is showing you oh man. What is good? What does the Lord required you? But to do justice to love mercy to walk humbly with your God Another Hebrew prophet Yeshua Ben Yosef we'd call him Jesus He narrowed it down Matthew 22 you want to know what's good love God without your heart so am I love your neighbor as yourself And then Luke 6 he made it even more succinct treat others as you would have them treat yourself How's that for definition of good if radical Islam could just reach up high enough to grab hold of one of those things Different world folks be a different world moral excellence Peter goes on to say add to your goodness knowledge knowledge Rick word is no sus we've talked about this from before so we get our word knowledge But this is real knowledge real command of something in this case the Christian faith you all if you've been to school You know the difference between studying for an exam trying to get just enough knowledge in your at least pass that beast of a test Versus real command of the subject The kind where you say the teacher bring it on For me that psychology exam. I know more about Sigmund Freud than Sigmund Freud's mama knew Bring on that geometry exam. I'm gonna put things down there that you could would have say it's a whoa. I never saw that coming Bring me that English lit exam. I'm gonna do stuff here that we in Shakespeare if you're here would say hey, I want to write that down I've never had that experience myself, but I understand the difference between just hope and I could get through the exam versus real Mastery of a subject this is the knowledge the real knowledge or a Christian faith and let me say this folks There's some new Christians in here. I'm so glad you're here And people just on the bubble thinking about being a coming to Christian some of us who've been at this a long time But let me say this and please hear me the knowledge that brought you to Christ ought not be the knowledge you have now about Christ six months after you became a Christian a year five years 20 years If that's all you know now there's a problem R.C. Sproul like to tell the story being on a flight cross country Sproul makes a living as a theologian Talk with a man the man. So what do you do for living? I just both said I'm a professor of systematic theology Man's a theology Jesus loves me this I know for the Bible tells me so that's all the theology I need That's for us to do then what is it you do? It's that I'm an astronomer It's supposed to all that's great twinkle twinkle little star. How I wonder what you are That's all the astronomy I need to know By the way, that's an aproxful story because R.C. Sproul will not sit foot on a plane, but it's a good story nonetheless Look if all you know right now is John 316 for God so loved the world that he gave us only begotten son Who so I would believe in him would not perish but have everlasting life that may be the most important thing you could possibly know But it's not all there is to know We will never truly grasp all there is to know about God father son in Holy Spirit We'll never fully grasp this book the Bible We'll certainly never know all there is to know are the Christian faith but folks Are you feeding your brain? Are you feeding your brain? Are you are you if you're a reader at all? Read CS Lewis's mirror Christianity pick up Harry Blame Myers the Christian mind read Chuck Colson's how now shall we live or At least the parts that Seen more relevant to your life read any of Francis Schaeffer's works Read any of Richard Pratt's books or go on his website third mill dot org Feed your brain if you're really up for a challenge If you think you're smart pick up John Calvin Read some of the institutes as much as you can and if you're not broken and humbled yet then pick up something by Jonathan Edwards I read Edwards just to remind myself how truly stupid I really am What a mind are you feeding your brain? Come to the Sunday evening fellowship let Neil literally show you how to think Think Christianly come to the Wednesday evening Bible study that bills leading bill Mueller's leading in Romans come to either one of these guys classes Revelation starting in two Sundays the book of Hebrews Are you feeding your brain look folks? Turn off American Idol or America's got talent or America has no shame or whatever these things are called It's easy for me to say I haven't been watching Turn them off take that DVD of cheaper by the dozen two out or Or high school musical which I liked by the way, okay? Take them out for a little bit Turn off log off the internet Feed your brain God gave you a brain For the glory of God for the building up of the body of Christ including your own for the advance of his kingdom to give our utmost for his highest First Corinthians two says we have the mind of Christ your Christian first Corinthians two says you have the mind of Christ The challenge for us is to activate it and to apply it And then Peter says add to your knowledge self-control I'm mindful of the times. I'll move fast. They're self-control is the word and Critella and Critella It's the virtue of one who masters his desires and his passions, especially Essential appetites. I mean is this a word for the day and for our culture Peter knew a little bit about self-control And he a little bit about not having much of it What did it cost him? There's a book about ten years old now called emotional intelligence. Not a Christian book It's got some marvelous stuff, and let me just give you one very very point at very meaningful study It was in it's called the marshmallow test. Maybe you've heard about it It took two year olds put them in a room and They said them if you'd like you can have one marshmallow right now Or if you'll wait till I come back You can have two marshmallows And then the there'd be one marshmallow on the table and then the instructor the administrator of the test would leave and We come back 20 minutes later These were three and four and five year old kids. You know how long 20 minutes is to a five year old kid When he's got a marshmallow in front of him if I remember I had about three fours to four fifths of the kids Just couldn't take it as soon as that door closed man. They had that one marshmallow. It was gone But there was a small percentage twenty twenty five percent who waited and They had video cameras on those kids were doing everything they could to stay away from that marshmallow They're rolling their eyes around they're going around the room. They're looking under the table They're they're praying they're sweating, but they're not touching that marshmallow so that when that instructor came back and they'd get to This is what Robert Goldman the The writer of the book says By the way, they also said and this may scare you said that test right there the ability to delay your gratification Is one of the greatest predictors of success in life you could find The ability to defer gratification Goldman says is those who are at the mercy of impulse who lacks self-control memories running from a non-Christian perspective They suffer a moral deficiency the ability to control Control impulse is the base of will and character There's an old-fashioned word for the body of skills that emotional intelligence represents Character the bedrock of character is self-discipline the virtuous life As philosophers since Aristotle have observed is based on self-control a Related keystone of character is being able to motivate and guide oneself whether in doing homework Finishing a job or getting up in the morning as we have seen the ability to defer gratification and to control and challenge one urges to act Is a basic emotional skill one that in a former day was called will No, this is not about just gritting your teeth and straying and white-nuckily and trying harder. That's called legalism This is about Christianity, but it is God who is at work in us both to will and to act according to his good pleasure He lights the fuse he gives you the energy and the gasoline the desire for This self-control and the self-control Peter said add perseverance The word for perseverance and greed is who paman a listen, you don't get this in your average Baptist church I hope you're appreciating. I hope you're writing this stuff down. Okay? I'm kidding. I have great respect for my Baptist brother Perseverance patient endurance steadfastness unswerving dedication to a cause or a goal I saw a plethora of examples of that this past week ladies and gentlemen two weeks ago people dealing with overwhelming physical and mental emotional challenges kids with autism Kids and adults with cerebral palsy People who are mentally challenged physically challenged JT the young man I've told you about before who did a Ray Charles number at the talent show He did it again this year hit the road Jack and don't you come back no more Broke his neck not quite two years ago playing football And I could I got to address those people in the mornings and I basically said to them keep on folks keep on No whining no complaining. It was amazing. Nobody. There's whining and planning about their lot in life I was able to say them keep on folks keep on Jim fix and his first complete book of running included this quote if we quit When it hurts all we learn is how easy it is to avoid the pain I said them don't quit folks don't give up Marvadon what people need is not the illusion that they can escape from suffering But purpose to endure it and hope that can be redeemed You go into a tough time Calling for perseverance. Don't try to deny. Don't try to spiritualize it if it hurts telling tell God Who else Ask him to show you the purpose or just reassure you that there is a purpose I saw a plethora of living examples of perseverance last week, and I'm looking at a bunch of living examples of perseverance right here in front of me Many of you not all of you many of you have been kind enough to tell me your stories I don't know something you were struggles and God bless you for hanging in and being models of perseverance. I Came across this quoted as an unknown to me Trust the past to the mercy of God the present to his love and the future to his providence Carry on carry on Peter says I had to perseverance godliness. We're almost done godliness. You see via You see via devotion humility and piety and love towards God. This one's really hard to sum up in a few words folks But you know when you encounter it These are people. They're holy. They're compassionate. They have empathy They're committed to Jesus as Lord and they're seemingly devoid of ego. They don't care who gets the credit
Summarize this way lamps do not talk, but they do shine and then to godliness Peter says add brotherly kindness. Do you know this word? You know what it is? You can probably figure that one out if you look at it Philadelphia Philadelphia anybody from Philadelphia the city of brotherly kindness I've seen some of the sporting events. I'm not sure they're living up to their name This is love for the family of God our brothers and sisters in Christ brotherly kindness We took our girls our younger girls to Disney World on Saturday, Christy and Andrew couldn't come for various reasons Allison and Chris I had never been to Disney World before we did about 10 years where we would not support Disney Because of what they were doing. There seems to be a change in Disney. They seem to have gotten More friendly toward the family more friendly toward Christianity and Michael Eisner has gone praise god So we took the two little ones to Disney World on Saturday. It was great Had a great time Lions weren't that bad. They were they were thrilled of course But the thing that struck me is that everywhere we went in the magic kingdom Ladies and gentlemen boys and girls welcome to the happiest place on earth Is this job here to work out? I got a voice gig waiting for me up through The thing is struck me was as we were waiting in line for these various rides How much the kids around us were fighting with each other and whining and complaining? I'm thinking you're in Disney World Kids all over the world would kill to be where you are Set a phase and you're fighting and griping One line these two in front of me were fighting so bad I couldn't take anymore I reached up and I grabbed one of them by the rest said you do stop it Their mother looked at me. I think God was my own family not really The girls were really good and don't tell them I said that please We're not friends if you tell them that they really were good But there really was a lot of quarreling a lot of whining and you know, I'm not talking about Disney World You know, I'm not just telling you verbal slides in my family vacation Look what God has done for us ladies and gentlemen look where we are In a multi-million dollar facility worship center with buildings other churches would kill for we are Worshiping in the freest strong as most advanced nation in the history of the planet sitting in padded pews in an air-conditioned place with unbelievable technologies around us Look what God has done for us other churches around the world. Well, they wouldn't kill for this, but they sure like to have it Let's don't quarrel folks don't fight over our privileges Nothing greets our father's heart like seeing his own children fighting Finally add to brotherly kind's love. This is where you'll know agape benevolent self-sacrificing altruistic Laying my life down for the sake of others the kind best exemplified by God Who demonstrates his own love toward us and while we were yet sinners? Christ died for us and please notice These are all Character qualities. It's not listed external do's and don'ts help a little lays across the street feed the ducks Don't let her face her Jerusalem five times a day and pray. No It's not an external legalistic checklist of do these things. These are character qualities Forge and the fires of grace Not driven by guilt Is there a particular order this I think there is The reason I put it this way on the screen. I think there's an order to this Peter starts with faith Go see others and ends with love can you think of another biblical writer who does that? first Corinthians 13 And now remain these three faith hope and love And the greatest of these is love folks if we get all the others all the knowledge and all the other We don't end up more loving We've missed it We missed it. You know that old they don't care how much you know today know how much you care folks. It's true If we don't end up more loving Then we don't end up more Christ-like And I also just say If you have all these things and you're pegging the needle you are strong as an acre of garlic you are a lean mean spiritual machine And you try to do it on your own You're gonna get creamed I don't know if you're aware or not that but mine he won the world championship I don't know if you heard about it Did you know there's a parade on Friday? Did you hear about that and there's a young man? It's being hailed as the closest thing the second coming of Michael Jordan. His name's Dwayne Wade Perhaps you've heard of him too He's incredible. He's greatly skilled and He did not win that championship by himself He had a lot of help from some other guys name Jay and and Udonis and Alonzo and what's the other guy's name? Oh, yeah, she keel that one. Yeah We need to be people like this. We need to be moving and growing into this portrait But please remember folks. It's a family portrait these verbs They're all pearl It's it's y'all grow into these things y'all become more faithful and good and more good and have more knowledge and so it's y'all it's all pearl Folks, it's a portrait, but it's not an individual. It's a family portrait Some guy paid a hundred and four million dollars for a Picasso Jesus paid for this one with his life Let's pray together our father and we are very grateful and humbled that we can call you father Thank you not only for giving us this portrait something to grow into But thank you father that you have Graciously and mercifully agreed let us be in the portrait I pray for any person here today. You man woman or young person who isn't sure Whether or he's got a place in that portrait isn't sure whether she belongs in that portrait Well that today would be the day. It would do business with you So when that portrait is finalized They're right there right there at the table Place of honor right next to Jesus Lord I pray in his name. Amen Let's stay with you Parents remember we've moved children's church rooms eight and fifteen when you go and collect your young people And now we see the Lord's benediction go now in the grace of God the Father the love and the mercy God the Son the fellowship companionship of God the Holy Spirit and live the life. Amen