Being a Believer in These Times (Carriage Lane Presbyterian)

I think it's been hard to be a Christian for a long time, even from the days of the Apostle Paul. But there are times in cultures and times and families and times even in your personal life when it's easier to follow Christ than at other times. When you say that's true for you. And I would say that right now in American culture today is we're beginning to get a sense that it's going to be harder. Now a lot of you looking through the group here are too young to be able to understand how that's possible because you've kind of grown up in the way things are right now. But it used to be an American culture that it wasn't so difficult to be a good Christian, good person, meant the same thing, especially in a place like Atlanta, Georgia.

But now the lines are being drawn in ways that it becomes increasingly difficult for us to know what that might mean for us, especially for people who are concerned with the mission that Jesus has given to us. Psalm 96, the Psalm that's the theme Psalm of this conference this week, talks about declaring the glory of God among the nations, that's what it talks about. And actually commands God's people in worship time to begin to do that. And you can tell how words like that can be used by Christians to refer to this thing we call the mission. Because Jesus' mission to you and me is to let the whole world know about him. But as culture around us has changed and as things have become increasingly difficult for us to involve ourselves in such things, we have to start asking the question, well what kind of person could possibly do that? And actually talk about the glory of God, talk about salvation from God and tell other people around them about that kind of thing. What kind of person does it take to do that? Recently I was in a doctor's office and I don't know why people don't understand this. But a young lady answered her cell phone and she started talking to the person on the other end, I don't know who it was. She was carrying on a conversation and very loud and it was a very personal conversation. I mean she was talking about things that if she knew the rest of us in the room we're hearing, she would have been embarrassed. But she was just going on and on and on and on and on about this, that, this, that, this, that. And finally this older man sitting next to me between her and me just walked over to her as she's still talking on the phone, he said, we don't want to hear about your personal business. Have you ever done that? Have you ever found yourself talking on the cell phone and all of a sudden I discovered people around you are listening to what you're talking about? It's okay for you to have a conversation on your cell phone even in public. So long as you keep your voice down and don't bring everybody else into the conversation. It reminds me of when I got on an airplane just recently on my way to England and I was there sitting down next to the people next to me in Jesus and I had this deal that if they don't talk to me, I don't have to talk to them, but they talked to me. So I had to talk to them and eventually the conversation got around to, what do you do? And I said these were brits and I said well I'm a pastor, I'm a minister. And the man said well that's nice but don't try to convert me. I said don't worry I'm off the clock. You see private phone conversations and religion are basically the same thing. It's okay even in America today for you to believe what you want to believe. That's okay. In fact it's guaranteed to us isn't it that we can believe but we want to believe. We can have the religion we want to and people respect that because they want to be left to be able to say and believe what they believe as well. But it's okay so long as you don't bother other people with what you believe. Now as soon as you start bothering other people with what you believe now you've crossed the line. Now you've talked to that on your cell phone in the doctor's office. Now you're bothering other people you're in their space. And that's the problem that the Apostle Paul was facing as he wrote these words right here in the book of 2 Corinthians. The Corinthians had basically told him, leave us alone. We appreciate what you've done for us. We appreciate the good things that you have been for us as an Apostle. But now you've gone to messing around in our lives and we really don't want you to bother us anymore with all the things that you believe. And in this passage this is what the Apostle talks about. Why he can't leave them alone. Now see you're going to be just fine. You're going to get along with people. Everything's going to be fine. This church is going to be just fine. It's going to be a hack of little church right across street from the Roman Catholic church. You know it's just one of several churches on this road. And it's going to be fine. Nobody's going to bother with you. Nobody's going to be upset with you. So long as you leave, peace, tree, city alone. And just practice your own little holy huddle here. But as soon as you start letting them know what you believe now you've broken the rule. But you understand, don't you, that everyone on a mission, the mission that Jesus has given us, is committed to letting other people know what they believe. So what kind of person does it take to do that? To take what others consider private and make it public. Paul answers that question. Why can't you leave us alone? He answers that question by reflecting on himself in ways that are in some respects unusual for him. He sort of opens up and he opens himself up and he says, this is why I can't do it. It's because there's certain things that are true about me. And I need to let you know what's true about me. And maybe if we can see what he says about himself, we can sort of put it up as a mirror in front of us. And we can ask, is that true of me too? Because if it can be true of you, then you will be a person that will be involved in praying for missionaries who are bothering other people and giving your money for missions that's bothering other people. And you will become involved in this thing called the mission by bothering other people with the things you believe too. So let's look first at what the apostle says. First thing he says in this passage we just read is, I can't leave you alone because I'm a changed person. I'm a changed man. Listen to how he puts it in verse 16. From now on, therefore, we regard no one according to the flesh, even though we once regarded Christ according to the flesh, we regard him thus no longer. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The oldest past away, behold, the new has come. Now most followers of Jesus know verse 17. You've heard it before. If anyone is in Christ, behold, new creation, old has gone away, new things have come. And we say, that's great because we know that people, when they come to Christ, they do change. The Holy Spirit comes and lives in them, he changes them, makes them new creation, a part of this new world that Jesus is building. And that means that you change. And some of us in this room have changed dramatically from the ways we were before we came to Christ. Maybe you can remember what that was like for you. Some people are current just inside out. Others is a little more gradual, little quieter. But we do know that people change in many ways when they become Christians. But when the apostle Paul talks about it here, he has something in particular in mind, a way in which he has been changed. And it's found in the verse that comes just before it, where he says, from now on, we look at no one from a worldly point of view. We once, even regard it Christ from a worldly or a fleshly point of view, but we do so no longer because everyone in Christ has been made new. So he's talking about a change that took place in him when he became a follower of Jesus and it was a change in the way that he looks at other people. Now think about it for just a minute. When you think about looking at people according to the flesh or some translations put it from a worldly point of view, how does the world look at the human race? How does it look at people? Well, I guess we could say the number of things about it, but if you thought about the human race as a big pie up here, this is what people do with the human beings around them. They start slicing this pie called the human race into pieces. Those who live near me and those that live far from me, those who are educated like me that those that are not, those who have money and those that don't, those who are nice and those that are not, those that are like me, those that I don't like, those that I do like, don and on and on and on. We just slice it up and all this slicing up, it allows us to sort of manage people around us. It allows us to manage how we relate to them because the people who are like us, well, we want to pay attention to them. We want to be with them, but the people who are not like us, we really want to keep them in our distance. And if they'll just stay out of our lives completely, that would make it even better. So what does the human race look like to a person who lives according to the flesh that is outside of Jesus? Is divided into all kinds of parts and pieces so you can figure out who's worthy of your time and who's not worthy of your time. But the Apostle Paul says, that's the way I used to look at Jesus. I don't do that anymore. I really don't. I changed the way I look at other people too. I mean, think about it this way. You know, when people go through biological changes, I mean, just as they're growing up, they change the way they view the human race. A little toddler, when they think about human beings, they think of two categories, other toddlers and those big things that go, want, want, want, want, want. No, want, want, want, want, no. That's their experience of the human race. Okay, they become a little bit older, maybe teenagers, and how do they think of the human race, boys and girls, male and female. They become young adults, and if they're not married, then how do they think about the human race? Well, it really divides into two groups, those that are married and those that are not married. They become grandparents, and the human race divides into two groups, grandparents and grandchildren, nothing else counts. It's just kind of the way it is, that when you go through biological changes, you change the way you look at the human race. Well, how much more should we change the way we think about people, the people with whom you live every single day? How much more should we be changed from the way that the world looks at them if we've become new creation and Christ? If that has changed, if that changes come upon you, then it should be changing the ways you view people. After all, before you became a follower of Jesus, he really didn't mean that much to you. And when you think about the way you used to slice the pie up before you've started following him, I hate to tell you this, but Jesus was not an American. Jesus did not speak English. Jesus did not dress like you and me. He was a foreigner. He did not have the kind of education you have. He didn't have the money that you have. He would smell bad if he was in this room. You with me on this? He would not have measured up to the kind of person you and I would have counted as worthy of anything. But we've been made new creatures, new creation, and we call that man Jesus of Nazareth our Lord. Now if that has changed in you, it ought to change the way you look at people around you too. Because in Christ there really are only two sets of people in the world. Cut it one time. Those who are in Christ and those who are in need of Christ. Those who are your family and those who need to be a part of your family. And it is that simple. You see, what happens when you put the flags up and things like that? You know, we look at that and go, well, I don't know what country that is. Whatever. What all these little flags? The nice decorations, but not globe. I mean, what would you just be concerned about people in peace, tree city? And in fact, we should only be concerned about certain kinds of people in peace, tree city. The kinds that would fit into our church. Now that's our mission. But the reality is that if Jesus and His apostles had thought that way, where would you be today? You think Jesus would appear weird to you? Just think how weird you would appear to Jesus. You think that the Apostle Paul is a little bit strange being a first-century missionary. Just think how strange you are in His eyes, how distant you are, how much you don't fit into the priorities of life for Him. And yet Jesus, the Apostle Paul and many others following them, generation after generation, gave themselves to those who were in need of Christ like you and me. And for that reason, you and I are now in their family. How could we have any other attitude than that? That yes, that mission in that far-away land, it's worthy of my prayers. Yes, it is worthy of my money to give to a mission here in town that I don't even know those kinds of people. Yes, it is worthy of my time to consider being a part of a mission like that. I was once in a church, I was once the pastor of a church, a rather upstanding church in our own denomination. And they were having trouble without reach. They hadn't really done much of it. And I asked them, well, what have you done to try to reach out to the community around you? I said, well, have you had, like, do you have a divorce recovery group? No. Do you have an addiction recovery group? No. I mean, those are the normal things that churches do nowadays. And I went through a list of things like that. Are you reaching out to unwitting mothers? No. I said, well, why not? And this elder of the church looked to me with a straight face and he said, those are not the kinds of people you build a church out of. I would dare to say no one in this room would actually say those words. The search your heart to see if the attitude is not there. Aren't you glad that when Jesus looks at the human race, he looks in terms of those who are his and those who ought to be his? That's how he looked at you and that's why you belong to him now. So what kind of person declares the glory of God to the insidious? It's a person who's been changed in the way they look at other people. But then the apostle goes on and he says, I want to tell you something else about me. It's not just I've been changed. I've also been called to something and listen to the way he describes this calling beginning of verse 18. All this, all this change that happened in him, all of this is from God who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation. That is, in Christ, God was reconciling the world to himself not counting their trespasses against them and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. Now that's a lot of words there, isn't it? A lot of stuff going on there. Let's unpack it just a little bit. Basically, this is what he's saying. God changed me for a reason. He changed me to call me to be a particular kind of person. And what does he say that kind of person is or what role that person is to have? He describes it this way. He says, I've been given a ministry of reconciliation. Now those are not words that we normally use day after day. How many times this week have you used the expression ministry reconciliation? Probably not at all. So we need to unpack it just a little bit so we don't allow it just to be a religious phrase so it can mean something to our lives. So what's he mean when he says, I've been given this ministry of reconciliation? Well basically reconciliation, as you know, is when you take two people who are at odds with each other or two groups of people who are at odds with each other. And you try to reconcile them to each other. They might be enemies at war. They might be a husband and wife. They might be parents and children. But you're trying, they're trying to make reconciliation between people who have somehow offended each other or who are divided or antagonistic against each other. And what's a ministry reconciliation? What's a minister of reconciliation? A servant of reconciliation? It's the person that stands between those two. The person who stands between these two enemies and does the hard work of bringing them together. That's what a family therapist will do. That's what pastors often do. It's what negotiators often do. Diplomats often do that kind of thing too. They're trying to bring people together and they have to stand in the middle. Now here's the apostle Paul saying, when I was changed, God didn't just change me. He also called me to be something. And what was he called me to be? He called me to stand in the middle, stand between two enemies. But the enemies that he's talking about here are not people. Not talking about the people live in northern Georgia and southern Georgia. No, not that. Not even talk about America and Iranians. No, that's not the kind of enemies he's talking about. The enemies he has in mind in this passage is simple humanity and the holy God of heaven and earth. Because when people turn away from the commandments of God, they make themselves the enemies of God. And because they have declared war against God, God also declares war against them. And the apostle Paul is saying this, my job in this world is to stand in the middle of those two. I don't know about you, but I hear that and I go, yuck, no thank you. I just really don't want to do that. You know, when you do this Christian life for a number of years like I have and like a number of you have also, you often come to the point where you just wish you could just have a little private life, don't you? And can't I have just a little privacy? Do I always have to live in a glass house worried about my next door neighbors think about the argument wife and I are having? Now, do I really have to always be thinking about, you know, I'm a testimony for Jesus every minute of every day. So I got a smile every chance I get and got to be really nice to people and I don't feel like I want to be nice. And can't I just be like a person? Can't I just live a private life? I'm sure that by this time, as he's writing this letter to the Corinthians, the apostle Paul wished he could be a private person too and just leave these currently and Christians alone and let them do what they wanted to do. But you hear what he's saying to them in this passage? I can't do it. I can't do it. First because God changed me but also because he's called me to be a minister of reconciliation. I really do sometimes wish that people would just leave me alone, but the fact is God works it out so that they don't. And when that happens, I have a choice to make. Am I going to be a minister of reconciliation standing between the Holy God I have on earth and these people and trying to bring peace between them? Or am I just going to walk away? Am I going to pray for people who are involved in that every day of their lives on the mission field? Or am I just going to ignore them and pray for the things that are important to me? Am I going to give money to the mission of this local church? Or am I just going to keep my money for myself and go to see another movie? That's where it gets down to, doesn't it? Now, Americans, you know, we believe that we have a right, these inalienable rights, I don't know where we got these ideas, but these inalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, and part of this liberty, the notion that we have is that we think that we really do have a right to just ignore the people around us. But the Apostle Paul says, no, I'm a minister of reconciliation, reconciliation, and we all are the same. I, naturally, in my flesh, I hear that and I say, yuck, but that's not what he says about it. I'm sure probably deep down inside, there was something yuckiness to it for him, but that's not what he says in this passage. Do you remember how he puts it? This is part of this passage that's very famous, verse 20. Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. Rather than saying, that's a terrible job, this ministry of reconciliation, what he did was he took in the right sense of the word pride in it, and called it what it was. I've been made an ambassador.

Now, I don't know if you've ever been around ambassadors. I hadn't offered many years until we were on a mission trip to the Czech Republic or Czechoslovakia, as it was called at that time, back in the 80s. And yes, 1902, I know for many, it was the same thing, 80s, 1902, back in ancient history. And we were in a mission trip, and we were there, and the leader came in and woke me up in the middle, and very early in the morning said, hey, rich rich, you want to go see Shirley Temple? What? He said, yeah, Trent Lott, this is a group from Mississippi, and Trent Lott was still the senator from Mississippi, and Trent Lott has arranged for us to go see Shirley Temple, who was at that point, Shirley Temple Black, the ambassador of the United States to Czechoslovakia. Well, I didn't know she was the ambassador of Czechoslovakia, and I said, well, sure, let's do it, so I stumble out and get into the cab with the group, and I'm putting on my shoes and socks, and on the way, they say to me, rich, what are you going to say? What are you going to say? I said, I'm not going to say anything. They say, yeah, you've got to be the talk, you've got to do the talking because you're the professor. You're the only person who knows what to say, I don't know what to say, so I'm thinking about it, I say, okay, you want me to talk, I'll say what I'm going to do. I'm going to ask you to sing Good Ship Lollipop. Now, you don't know me well enough to know that that's the kind of thing I would do, because if I get a sense that you think you're somebody I'm going to kind of let you know, and usually a little more subtle ways, but I'll let you know, I really don't think you ought to feel that way about yourself. Okay, so everybody's going, Shirley Dupple, Shirley Dupple Black, those unbelievable ambassadors and things like that, so I'm going to let, I'm going to find out, can she remember the words to Good Ship Lollipop? For you young people, just Google Good Ship Lollipop tonight, okay, and you'll see Little Shirley Temple dancing and singing that song. So I'm going through the Good Ship Lollipop to the candy shop, so I'm trying to get the words down so I can catch her, you know. So we jump out of the cab and go up to this big plexiglass window that had the biggest ugliest marine I've ever seen in my life, like a monster man standing behind this plexiglass. And I'm still doing this Good Ship, making fun of it and everything, trying to figure out what the words are, and he looks at me and he takes my passport and he starts staring me down and he just stares me down and stares me down until I'm like, okay, like that. And he lets me in, he's going to let this guy in, that's dancing around the things. So they marches up to her office and they go in there, it's about half the size of this room I think, because I recall I guess bigger every time I tell the story, but about half the size of this room, big office, okay, splendid office, and she's not in the room. Everybody else is from Mississippi, so they know exactly what to do, they all sit down and fold their hands and put them in their last, but not me, I'm not from Mississippi. So I start walking around the room, looking at everything is around the room, okay, nobody's in there, why not? So I'm going around, and I notice pictures of her, and they're pictures of her with Ronald Reagan, pictures of her with Nautich Dung, pictures of her with, let's say the Queen of England, the Queen of England was there, and it wasn't like she was curting before the Queen of England, they had their arms around each other drinking champagne. Now as I'm walking around the room seeing these pictures, it's not little girl Shirley Temple anymore. All of a sudden I realize this is an important person, she knows these world leaders, and since I realize that, as soon as it gets clicked, this is an important event that I'm about to have, these big French doors start opening up and in Watts, Shirley Temple, she looks like my grandmother, okay, nothing impressive about her. But boy when she walked in, the doors open, she walked in, this group that was between me and her, this group stands up and there's this parting of the Red Sea, and so I'm supposed to walk down, so I start walking down a couple of students that are with us in the group doing this as I was walking down. Richard, Richard, Richard, Richard, Richard, they want me to say good ship lollipop thing, okay, so I go up to her and I put out my hand and I say, how do you do, Madam Ambassador, it's a privilege to meet you, and then I sit down. I don't even dare to bring up this ship lollipop, why? Because I realize this woman was an important person, she spoke on behalf of my president, she spoke on behalf of my country, she spoke on my behalf to the country Czechoslovakia, and she has sacrificed to do so, and she was worthy of my honor, she was worthy of my respect because there's hardly a higher office you can maintain than that of an ambassador, and that was certainly true in the days of the Apostle Paul. Ambassadors in the days of the Apostle Paul were appointed by kings, not by presidents, and they were given authority to represent their kings even to their enemies, to speak, and then the king would do what the ambassador promised he would do. So when the Apostle Paul says here, I've been given the Ministry of Reconciliation, and it is this, we are ambassadors for Christ as though God were making His appeal through us. What more could a human being want than for the God of heaven and earth, the king of the universe, to choose, to speak through you, and that is exactly what we do. When we tell people about Jesus, when we support the work of others who are telling people about Jesus, even though it may not seem any more glamorous than surely temple black looked as she walked through those opening doors, it is you standing for the God of heaven and earth, and He has appointed you as His ambassadors, but you're not the ambassador of a country like the United States that will pass away like every other country. You are not the ambassador of a kingdom that will fail like every other kingdom has failed. You and others like you and me who are in Christ, we are ambassadors of a kingdom who will reign forever, and we are ambassadors of a kingdom that will never stop expanding until it reaches the very ends of the earth.

So how could we possibly be private about this thing called our religion when we've been given that kind of privilege? Because of Corinthians, I know you want me to leave you alone. I know you want me to keep my faith to myself, but the fact is I can't, because I've got the best job, the most unimaginable job that could ever be given to a human being, and so do you. It doesn't mean you have to be a fancy preacher. You don't have to be eloquent to do this. All you have to do is change the way you look at people and care about them, and just let them know what you believe. That's all you have to do, and you are being an ambassador of Christ. So the Apostle says, yes, I'm changed. That's why I'm on this mission thing. That's why I can't leave you alone. And yes, I am called to be an ambassador, but there's a third thing here, and this is the hard part for good Presbyterians like you.

See, I think if you hear from the Bible, you should be changed in the way you think about people. I think you'll try to do it. I think you will. I think you will. I think if you believe and hear from God's word that you've been called to be an ambassador, you'll believe it, and you'll try to be that. I believe that. It's the third thing that Paul says here, that's hard for us. This is the hard part, but it's ever so essential. Listen to what he says, verse 20 again. We therefore are Christ's ambassadors. God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. It's that last sentence. We implore you on Christ behalf, be reconciled to God. Different translations put this in different ways. Some say we beg you. Some say we plead with you. The old King James, that I learned this verse from, says what? Does anybody know what it says? We beseech thee. There's a nice old word, huh? We beseech thee, be reconciled to God. Implore, beg, beseech, plead. You know what all those words mean. Paul does not say here. He could have. He could have, and it would have been legitimate for him to do it. He does not say here we preach at you, be reconciled to God. He did not say as we're prone to say these days, we share with you, be reconciled to God. He did not even say we invite you to be reconciled to God. And he certainly didn't say we argue with you about be reconciled to God. Because none of those words fit with the intensity of the emotion that the apostle is experiencing as he's thinking about these Corinthians whom he brought to Christ, many of whom he brought to Christ, actually turning against him. The intensity of his concern for them can only be expressed by the words like plead, beg, implore, we beseech thee, be reconciled to God. And so do you know what that indicates about him? At least at this moment when he's writing these words, he cared about those people. He cared deeply about them, so that he would characterize what he was doing toward them, the message that he would bring to them as pleading with them.

Those of you who are parents, think about how sometimes we plead with our children. If you have teenagers normally, as they individuate and start separating from us and going their own ways, almost inevitable, there's going to be some kind of conflict between you and your teenagers. And if your teenager really starts messing up life, you know the first thing that happens, especially in the fathers, but maybe the mothers as well. As soon as that teenager says something is really bad, the first reaction from the good Christian parent is to become angry. How can you do that? Haven't I taught you better than that? You've grounded for the next 500 years and I'm going to put you into closet and lock the door. Okay, so that's the first step. Okay, we become angry. And you know, we'll yell at him, we'll scream at him, we'll throw things, it's just amazing how angry we can become when our children disappoint us, especially if it's something that's going to hurt them. Why? Well, because we care about them, but the first emotional response is often anger. Well, when that doesn't work and usually it doesn't, when that doesn't work, you know what caring parents do next. Please don't do this. You don't know what this is going to do to you. This is going to hurt you forever. Don't do this. Please. And even fathers will weep over their children right in front of them. Why do we do that? It's because when we see what they're doing to themselves, it breaks our hearts. Now, I know you live in pleasantville. You do, you know, golf carts and everything. What more could you want of a life than a golf cart to ride around in? You live in pleasantville where things are supposed to be good and wholesome. But you know as well as I do, most of that is about as temporary as the freshly cut grass on your front lawn. And it hides deep pain and deep suffering in the people all around you in this area. And if that's not enough for you, all you have to do is go a few miles to the north and the suffering and the pain is so obvious, you don't even want to go there. So how do you feel about those people? Do you just harden yourself to the world around you? They made their choices. I don't care. Or does it break your heart? Aren't you glad Jesus doesn't look at you in me like that? He made his choice. Let him go his own way. Where would you be today if Jesus treated you like that? When Jesus looked at the crowd, it broke his heart. When they were hungry, it broke his heart. When they turned against him, it broke his heart. When they killed him, it broke his heart. And the same must be true for you and me too. You know, we live in a political season. There's a lot of anger going around out there, isn't there? A lot of anger. And I'm all about the anger too. Because I'm mad too. I'm mad at every side. Every politician, I'm mad at a plenty for me to be angry about and plenty for you to be angry about. But as a follower of Jesus and as a church, as people who are ambassadors for Christ, anger really isn't the emotion we need to be having. When we look and see what's going on around us today, and as is coming out now, as is unfolding in the political arena, it ought to break our hearts. And the same should be true of your next door neighbor and of the people at work and of the people in Atlanta and the people around the world. We implore you on Christ's behalf, be reconciled to God. Are you that kind of person? I think you know what I mean. When we all hear those people talking on the cell phones and just sort of say like that, oh man, didn't that doctor's office? Would you please keep your private conversation private? I think you understand that and you also even understand why people would say could you just keep your religion to yourself. But our answer is, I'm sorry, we just can't do that. Why not? We're changed. We're changed in the ways we look at people. We are called with the highest calling a human being could want. And because Jesus cared for me, I care for you to be reconciled to God. Let's pray together. Lord Jesus, we adore you. Thank you so much that you do not look at us in worldly terms. Thank you so much that you were the father's ambassador to this earth. Thank you so much that you care for us. Holy Spirit, these are not new ideas for most of us here tonight. But we confess to you that unless you come and empower us, we don't have a chance of making them a part of our lives. And so we pray that we will gain the spirit that the Apostle Paul had. And that this Holy Spirit will write these things on our hearts and that the power that he used to resurrect you from the dead will be in us too. Amen.