The Gateway to God's Kingdom - Part 2

Lesson Transcript

Good morning. You can turn your Bibles with me to Matthew chapter 5, beginning a number of messages here on the Sermon on the Mount, Matthew 5 through 7, Lord willing. Last time, if you were here and remember, we talked about the first couple of verses in chapter 5. "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted. Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth." Today we want to look at verses 6, 7, 8, and 9.

"Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled. Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the children of God." If you remember the last time, the title of the message was "The Gateway to the Kingdom, to God's Kingdom." Well, we're sort of stalled in the middle of these Beatitudes, so I will just sort of continue where we left off.

And if it needs a title, it can be "That Again, Number 2." You know, when recently I had a person call me from another congregation, he said, "Would you come and do a number of sermons for us?" And I said, "Well, what is it you're thinking about? A subject, a topic, or what are you?" He said, "We're not really looking for anything. We just want to be challenged." And you know, I think of that. When I prepare sermons, I often go into one thinking, "You know what?

I'm just going to bring just a good little bright spot, a blessing to the church." And every time I sit down and I start reading and preparing, it turns into a sermon. Just a sermon. And I had a brother once tell me, "Harvey, you tend to just preach hard." I'm like, "I can't help it." I mean, I can't go through the Sermon on the Mount without getting hard on myself and all of you as well, can we? Jesus really comes down hard on us. He's saying we're just going to have to go against the flow.

Remember the last time I said if we're going with the flow, we're going the wrong way. Jesus is teaching us that the whole way through this sermon. It's so upside down. It's so twisted from our human heart and our human way of thinking. And it's just counterculture wherever we go today. When you start talking this way and living this way, people look at you funny. Like, "Really?" I've learned that again on our traveling this summer, that, you know, the bulk of the world I'm going to say this.

I think I can clearly say this. The bulk of the world has stopped believing the Bible. And it can start right at the Grand Canyon at creation. And when we stop believing creation, then everything else in the Bible is up for grabs. You see that? We can then go through and pick and choose what we want to believe in the Bible.

Well, the last time we looked at those verses that say we are to be poor in spirit, we're to be meek, we're supposed to get rid of all that ugliness, pride, selfishness, humanity in our hearts, emptying ourselves. Today, our first verse for today is "Blessed are they that hunger and thirst." You know, now we're beginning to turn. These verses are progressive. So we're emptying out ourself, and now we're beginning to fill ourselves.

You know, it's not good enough to just put on our human flesh and nature and our carnality and all of that. If that's all we get done and we never come back and have it replenished with something different, Jesus says he gives the picture of a house that has been swept and garnished, made clean. And there it sat. And there were seven other spirits that came in and filled the house.

So Jesus is helping us now to say our appetites, our hunger, our thirst, our desire, the things we go after, make sure it's the right thing. That word righteousness has the idea of rightness or justification. And when I think of that, it's like just before sin entered into the world, just the way it was back then. Rightness, righteousness. Before we're tainted with ugliness. Well, Paul says in me, that is, in my flesh dwells no good thing.

Our human heart, our human nature is of a different sort than what Jesus is calling us to. So how do we what are the first steps towards hungering and thirsting after righteousness? Well, we already talked about getting rid of self. As long as self is on the throne, we will not hunger and thirst after rightness. So we need to get reckon. We need to reckon with ourself and see our great need before God, before we can even change our taste buds into something better.

The next step towards is I think it's David that says this in the Psalms. "The angel of the Lord encampeth round about them that fear him." And then he just bursts out and says, "Oh, taste that the Lord is good. Taste and see." So the first we it is a taste to in order for us to hunger and thirst, we must acquire a taste. And he says he points out the goodness of God, and he says, "Then taste it and see for yourself." And I believe there's many people in the world today that just never open their mouth and taste.

When I was a kid at home, just this little guy sat across the table at a dinner table from my older sister. And whenever sauerkraut was passed around, I said, "I don't like sauerkraut. I just didn't like sauerkraut." My older sister once said, "Oh, sauerkraut is really good. You're going to learn to eat sauerkraut." So she walks over to my part of the table, and she takes her one hand on my head and the other in the spoon, and she just pushes and force-feeds sauerkraut. I think I once at least brought it back up.

It was so yuck, so I thought. But you know, the more she did that a few times and she just force-fed me sauerkraut. I go back to that older sister today and I say, "You know what? Thank you. Because today I love sauerkraut. If I have a choice between a hot dog and a sauerkraut on a bun, I'll take the sauerkraut. Take your hot dog." Get it? I had to acquire a taste. Most of that was up here. I didn't like it, so I thought. But I love it today. And that is what David says.

"The angel of the Lord campeth round about his people. Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good. Just try it." Sometimes we need help to try it. The next thing we need, the third thing I think we need to do to acquire, to nurture the hunger and thirst for righteousness is stop the snacking before mealtime. After we were married, I learned very quickly when I'm coming home from work and it's supper time and my wife fixed a great meal for supper and I just couldn't wait. I needed gas for the truck. Pull in, run in.

Back then we still ran inside to pay. No credit cards at the pump like that convened. "Hey, here's the snack bar. I'm going to get myself a little cheese cracker pack." I love those things. That's all it took. It only takes a cheese. I come home, sit down, and here she has all these mashed potatoes and all this meat and everything that's just desirable. The kind of meal that actually fills and satisfies. And I sit there and I pick around a little bit and she's like, "Why are you hungry?" Well, it's good.

That really irritates my wife. I think it does most, probably most ladies that fix a meal. It would me too. And then all this effort and energy that went into that. And I'm sitting there just sort of picking through and, you know. Well, you know what it was? I had a snack and it ruined my appetite. The snack never satisfied. It never was the right square thing I needed. And that's what Jesus is saying here.

"I have prepared for you a wonderful meal." And it's so wonderful that when you taste of it, you will be satisfied. And if you keep going back, you're going to acquire a taste and there's going to bring satisfaction. How can we make this practical, spiritually speaking? When we snack of other things, you know, just like my wife would get irritated when I don't eat and dig in, Jesus really gets irritated. In fact, when we see the churches in Revelation to several of them, he said, "You don't you think you have it?

You think you have what you need, but you're naked. You're blind. You're whatever the list is there. You don't have what you need. Come back to me. You've left your first love." It's called lukewarmness. And you know, the devil is a professional at distractions. I'm convinced the older I get, the more I'm convinced that one of his greatest tactics in destroying our meal or our desire for righteousness is put other things in the way.

So if I'm really hungering and thirsting after righteousness, wouldn't I come to prayer meeting every time there's prayer meeting at church? Here's a challenge, folks. The devil says, "Oh, you have a computer. You can sit on your phone and you can look up a hundred other things that are a lot more entertaining than coming to prayer meeting." Isn't that how he works? He takes away the hunger and the thirst after righteousness. You know, we have the world says this.

In fact, I think the inventor of Facebook said this. His goal was to get young people, college people on campuses to connect in a better way through that platform. And I'm going to ask, has it worked? Has it worked? It's just been another platform to pick and fight and fuss and gossip on, I think. I'm saying I'm challenging, folks. I'm not saying Facebook is wrong. I'm just simply saying this way.

Let's not allow any of these platforms or any of this media or any of this time on any kind of device or any other distraction to distract us and to just dampen our appetite for the real thing. That's my point there. "Blessed are the merciful." Verse 7 says that word mercy has the idea of compassion in action.

"Blessed are the merciful." Do you know that mercy that word mercy there is a Bible word that we need to really get ourselves familiar with because it is used in the Bible at least depends what version you're reading. It's used over 450 times in the Bible. Mercy. I guess I'm astounded how often the word or mercy or mercies or along that line is descriptive of our God. It describes him as a God of mercy.

And I'm just inspired again and motivated that in our passage, in our text here, he says, "Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy." We're operating under two different kingdoms in this world. And the more we involve ourselves with the kingdom of this world, the political system and the way it operates, it operates under a different value system. The Bible says that God sent his Son into this world not to condemn the world, but to bring mercy to this world. In Luke, we read Zacharias.

Luke 1, it says, "Through the tender mercies." And he's talking he bursts out in praise about John the Baptist coming, making a way of repentance for the people of God. And he says it's through the tender mercy of God, the day spring from on high hath visited us. Have you been visited by the day spring on high? If you have, it was through the avenue of mercy and not justice. If now we say that God is a God of justice, and he is. The laws of this land operates under a justice system.

That is why the kingdom Christians cannot and will not go and take up arms and take weapons and shoot people because we are called to be merciful. If I go to vote, if I go to be a policeman, if I go to serve on jury, all that system is under a justice system. And I would have to meet it out with justice. And am I ever glad that God did not come from heaven or send his Son Jesus with that system in mind? If he would have, we'd all be lost. We would all be lost.

We wouldn't make it because Romans chapter 3 tells us that we have all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. Every one of us has been like an open sepulchre. Every one of us has taken our own way. And that deserves punishment according to justice. David, a man after God's own heart, has sinned tremendously. He has been guilty of murder. He lied. He was deceptive. He stole another man's wife and had him put to death. He was about as ugly in his doings as we find them.

But David found mercy through repentance from the day spring on high, through the mercies of God. If justice would have called, David would have been stoned to death. If justice would have called for the apostle Paul when he stood next to Stephen when he's stoned to death as a murderer, Paul would have been stoned to death. But Paul says it was through the mercies of God. It wasn't through the justice of God that I found grace in the eyes of God.

And that's why Paul could write the letters to the churches today because he was set free under the mercies of God. Jesus tells us this morning that if we want to be recipients of God's mercy, we're going to have to learn to be merciful. And when I say I go on jury duty or I go to the military, it doesn't work there. Romans 13 says it is for that kingdom. They will carry arms. Not in vain. They will bring justice.

But you and I can't go there if we're going to follow this upside down kingdom, this inside out way of thinking. We just can't because we'd have to dish out justice. Having said that, God is a God of justice. The first round he came to this earth, the motivation behind that was mercy. The second time he's coming back, the motivation behind that coming, the Bible tells us, is judgment. He's going to judge the world. He's going to set things in order and he's going to receive his bride.

So let's keep that balance fair. Today we live in the time of mercy. Mercy is free. It's available. Let's engage. Let's tap into it and then have it radiate out to our fellow man, to those we meet. Remember the good Samaritan, the Levite, the priest. They came and here was a man that needed help. Jesus used that to help another man find his way.

Said, "Who had who was justified?" The man answered correctly, "The one that showed mercy." That is and Jesus turns and says, "You go and do likewise." We have opportunities almost every day to do likewise in one way or the other to show mercy to our fellow man. If we want God's mercy, then we give God's mercy first. Romans 3:26. There's an interesting thought that Paul describes God as a just God and a justifier. Just and justifier. "Blessed are the pure in heart." What is that?

Recently I saw on a palm olive dish soap container said soap. It says pure and clear without any extra or any unnecessary additives. And I sort of latched on to that. I thought, "Well, that gives a picture of pure soap." And the soap in it was transparent. You can see right through the bottle. Not often you have dish soap that way. Often it's green or yellow or pink or red. That has a lot of unnecessary additives in it. You get the picture.

And we come with a lot of unnecessary additives in our heart that happened in the garden with our parents. Pride, selfishness, just humanity that comes right with the package. And in order for that to take it out, something drastically needs to happen. Something supernatural needs to happen. "Blessed are the pure in heart." You know, the reward of that is they shall see God. They shall see God. We're born liars.

The Bible says that the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately does it say desperately wicked. Above all things. That's our human heart, isn't it? It's not pure. It's far from it. Well, you know, if anybody reads the Sermon on the Mount and thinks that we can live any part of this out without being born again, I think we're wrong. We need to be transformed in our heart because this is what we come with, desperately wicked. And Jeremiah 17:9 says, "I the Lord searched the heart.

I try the reins." You know, God has been on a search for 6,000 years for that human heart. The Old Testament system just didn't quite get to it, did it, according to Hebrews. It just didn't quite make it into that heart to transform it. Jesus says, "Out of it are the issues of life. Adultery begins in the heart. Murder begins in the heart." And he really rebuked the Pharisees. We'll see later on in the Gospel of Matthew. He says, "You get the outside of the platter and cup clean.

Outwardly, you appear beautiful to men unto men, but inwardly, you're full of dead man's bones." He got really hard on people that had a heart that was corrupt and outwardly appeared beautiful. Outwardly, he says, "You appear righteous unto men, but within you are full of hypocrisy and iniquity." That's not a pure heart, is it? Jesus is addressing that today. And you know, the only person that really knows our heart, if we're honest, it's ourself before God.

"Hypocrites," he says to them, "you build the tombs of the prophets and you garnish the sepulchres of the righteous." Get the picture. So I go to the tombs and I just build them and keep them nice. And I go to the sepulchres of the righteous. I think there's some language here that could apply today. You know, the scribes and the Pharisees were really proud of their background. They kept telling Jesus that we are Abraham's seed. We belong. Abraham is our father.

Remember how they just they just every time they went into their history. And I think there's a warning here for us. I get a little nervous when we talk about our 500-year celebration of Anabaptism. While I immensely appreciate my forefathers, the stand they took, but you know what? The Pharisees had that same thing going for them. They always shrugged Jesus off by saying, "We belong to Abraham's seed." And they were keeping the tombs nice and the sepulchres garnished. I don't know what all that means.

But the warning for us, it doesn't matter how righteous my forefathers were and what kind of stand they took, that is not going to reach my human heart. It's just not. There's something that's very personal between my human heart and my Savior, the Lord Jesus, and what I'm going to do about him, that, and what I'm going to do with him. And that's what Jesus is driving at with the scribes and the Pharisees. And folks, we can be there so easily.

Satan and the world is trying its best to help us get to that point where we say, "Oh, we're fine. We're from a good home. We're from a good heritage." I had a man tell me blatantly in my face one day when I challenged him about his future. He wasn't living right and he knew it. And he said, "But I have a good background. I think that's going to see me through on the day of judgment." Listen, folks, I'm sorry.

Jesus says that we are to take personal responsibility of our heart because out of it flow the issues of life. Then Jesus turns around to them and he says, "You blind people," he said, "here's what I want you to do." And this is for us too. It's not for the scribes and the Pharisees alone. But he says, "Clean first the platter and the cup on the inside so that the outside can be clean also." Now, do you notice that? Jesus's language he uses there is a different cleanliness.

He told them that your outward appears to be clean, but it's not. And now some people say, "All that matters is the heart and nothing matters on the external." The first statement is correct. Finally, all that matters, the heart does matter. And when the heart is right, Jesus does say the outward will flourish as well. And by the fruits, you will know the heart. And he recommends to these Pharisees that they get their inward clean. Get it right so the outward can. I'll just save for this for what it's worth.

If I have if I have a pure heart, if I have a modest heart, my dress and my action is going to reflect that. A pure heart, a modest heart is not going to come around and act and talk and dress in an immodest way. It doesn't go together. It doesn't it just doesn't work that way. Well, the reward to this is if we if we have our hearts pure, we're going to see God. Recently, as you know, we took a trip and I talked with another person that went on a west trip, did some sightseeing.

And when he came back, he said he said, "Everywhere we went," he said, "I just saw God." And I love that because I could relate to that. On our trip, everywhere we went, whether it's the desert or the canyon or the rocks, we saw God. And I wonder if that's what this means. It says, "If we have a pure heart, we're going to see God." It's as close as we're going to get to God. When we have a pure heart, we shall see him. We'll see him in creation. We'll see him at the workplace. We'll just see him wherever we go.

We see the touch of God. We're going to see him in the rainbow. We're going to see him in the moon. Did you all see that moon crossing Elon? Tell me what it was this week. Went across Saturn or under Saturn? You didn't see it. I think it was one morning this early morning. And they say it only happens once. It won't happen in my lifetime again or your lifetime. It only happens so many hundred years. And I just stood out there. I saw God again, the moon, and its timing.

And it was crossing that particular star behind it. Just the timing perfectly. The next night, they say it's going to be off. So it just happens. It just so happens that this stuff happens. It sort of evolves, right? There's a creator God that is in charge and it's orderly. Do we see God? I saw God the other week in a cow that was having a calf. I won't go into those details. I just went to my wife and said, "This is a miracle. This is a new experience for us." The miracle of God was just through the whole thing.

When we keep our hearts pure and untainted with the voices of this world and we learn to hear the shepherd's voice, Jesus says, "My sheep hear my voice and they go in and out and find pasture." That's a picture of being satisfied. And I just challenge us again. Let's learn to hear the voice of God. And you know, the word is written, the voice is spoken, I think, through the word. Through the word. Some of my greatest revelations come not by being plugged into some podcast. They all have their place and I'm not.

But I am challenging us that somehow let's keep an open heaven above us. Let's keep our ears open and not plugged in all day long. I know some people that walk around plugged in from morning to evening, listening to good things, listening to good podcasts, learning new things all day long. But folks, when we're plugged in, we're not hearing. Or it could be that that's a distraction from that open heaven.

Like I say, my greatest inspirations have come by meditating on a certain scripture during the day, thinking, "How could that speak to me?" And all of a sudden, there's a click that goes on, somehow hearing from God. I'm jealous over that, folks. If we build a church that each individual member learns to hear from God, read the word, meditate, make it a daily habit as Daniel did and as the Hebrew children did in the furnace, it stood firm. They knew their God. They had a relationship. It was a way of life for them.

We're going to see God with a pure heart. Blessed are the peacemakers. Verse 9. That word peacemakers, peace, comes from a Hebrew word shalom, spelled just like our daughter Shalom's name. I did a little more study on that word and I found that word to be a great word. In the Hebrew, I understand it's a little bit like the German word galoss and hide. There is no other word that comes quite close to it. And they use words like this in English to try to describe it.

To be safe in mind and body, to make complete, to be friendly, to make amends, to end, to finish well, full, give again, make good, repay. Those are all inspiring English words to describe shalom. Doesn't stop there. To be at peace, that is perfect peace. Requiet. Make restitution. Restore. Reward. And the list goes on. English words describing the Hebrew word shalom. Jesus says, "Blessed are the shalom makers, the peacemakers." Blessed are they. What does this mean? Anybody can pick a fight. Do you know that?

There was somewhere we were recently in a meeting. I can't say where it was. It might have even been here. I saw two little children. I mean, these were children that were very young playing with something. I don't remember where it was, but I just saw it at the corner of my eye. One was picking up the other apparently, and the other one finally got ticked off enough that he went and just pushed her. I mean, with intention. She went rolling and of course the cries. I mean, these were diaper children that age.

They were very young. And as I saw that, I thought, you know, surely their parents didn't teach them that. Surely they don't see that in their home. They just come with that. Children just are very young. They can pick fights and they're very professional at it. And often it has to do with things. You took something I had. Did you know that our world does the same thing? Did you know history tells us that for 400 and if I have these numbers right, I know Mr.

Brother Byers, Roger, when he was here at Bible school, he was throwing some of these numbers. You might I might have them wrong. If I have this correct, for 3,400 years of our history, there were 267 years that were considered peaceful years. That is 2%. 2% of the years where that meant where there was no world war going on somewhere in the world. And basically the way Roger described it was the times there was no war, basically the armies came back home as on furlough to repack for the next war.

And then in the last 500 years, if I have this right, there was not one single year there was not a war being fought or some major conflict between nations for 500 years, ongoing for 500 years. Jesus is saying, "You folks, in the middle of all this con to add to that, we've been we joined this church almost 30 years ago now, I think 28 or 29 years ago.

There was not one single year that I remembered being in this church that was that there was some sort of ongoing prayer request for the unrest in the world, conflict, or some war going on. It just doesn't stop. You know what Jesus told his disciples? He said, "I'm going to give you a peace.

I'm going to leave you a peace and then I'm going to give you a peace, not as the world giveth." And before we can really be a shalom maker, we're going to have to learn the true source of that peace that Jesus talked about to his disciples. And that came from a deeper source. It doesn't come from the peace treaties that our government signs because that's just going to point to another conflict. He says, "Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid." That is the kind of peace that Jesus offers.

And we're called to be that kind of person then, to bring peace, to bring comfort. If we want to be called the children of God, we're going to have to learn how to be a peacemaker. Hundreds of times in the Bible, the word peace or peaceable is used and it often refers again to identify God and his people. God is referred to as the God of peace. He's the prince of peace.

Remember that in Luke 2, I guess it is when the news came to the shepherds and the angel announced the birth of Jesus and then a heavenly host joined in with that angel and burst out in praise, "Morvin, help me out." Blessed to how's that go? Glory to God in the highest and on peace on earth. Good will. Glory to God in the highest and on earth. Peace, good will toward men. Think I got it. Isn't that exciting?

Those old shepherds out there that were doing that just day after night after night after night and all of a sudden there is an announcement come. You know, Jesus came to this world to show us what it looks like to have peace among ourselves. And he was the source of that peace. First of all, before we can be a shalom maker, we have to learn what it means to find peace in our own hearts with ourselves and with our God. That's where it starts. There is no greater peace.

There's no greater peace than when I make peace with my God and always well in my heart. Jesus says, "Your heart's not going to be troubled." Revelations tells us that the fearful and the unbelieving are going to have their portion with the wicked ones. If we don't experience the peace of God in our own heart, we'll never make this test. That's where it begins. So how is it in my heart? Do I have peace with myself, with my God? Is it well with my soul?

If I should die today, I had a little Baptist girl come to me in Shippensburg one time in town. She it's just she was 12 or 13 probably. And she just asked, "If you die today, do you know for sure that you go to heaven?" And I just looked at her and I said, "I think I believe I have the faith and trust I will." But that was a challenge of that young girl. I was proud of her to just open her mouth to an older man and ask that question. But it is a question we're going to have to ask ourselves.

Is it well with my soul? If it is, then we can be a shalom maker. We can go about. Now we have that going for us where we can bring about peace wherever we go because we have a testimony to bear. Romans Hebrews 12:14 says, "Follow peace with all men and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord." That's pretty heavy. You get that? Now, we're not called to be peacekeepers or just peaceable people. We are. We're called that. But not only that, but we're called to be peacemakers.

That means we put on our big boy pants, so to speak, and we pursue peace. We go after it. Paul says, "Follow after it." Jesus says that if you have a gift to bring to the altar and there you remember that your brother has ought against you, go and be reconciled. Leave your gift at the altar first. Go and be reconciled. When you're then he says, "Come and offer your gift." So you see Jesus puts this peacemaking above sacrifice. He puts it above worship. And I'm troubled when I hear Christian people.

I had a man tell me he considered himself a Christian. He said, "I have some brothers that we fought. We fought years ago. We couldn't get along with each other." And he said, "You know, to this day I have a brother and a sister. I have no clue where they live, in what state they live, and I don't even know if they're dead or alive." I'm like, "Really? You mean you grew up in the same family? Your blood brothers? Oh, we're not on speaking terms for 40 years." As far as I know, that man went to his grave that way.

Folks, I'm going to challenge us, all of us. Life is too short and eternity is forever. Every conflict probably. Now, Jesus and Paul, they're not asking us to agree with go and Jesus didn't say, "You go and agree with your brother. You sit down and hash it out until you both agree." But he did say, "Go and be reconciled." And I think we all know the difference if we're honest. We don't have to agree on every subject. My wife and I lived together for almost 40 years and we don't agree on everything, do we?

But we're reconciled. There's nothing between us that we're not going to talk to each other because we disagree. But Christians talk that way. We're not on speaking terms. He or she doesn't visit me. I don't visit them because there's conflict there. All right, folks, it can't be. Jesus says, "Get right. Be reconciled." I put that challenge out. It's not worth it. It's going to ruin our relationship with our great God. Let's be a peacemaker. Let's go after it. Let's pursue it.

And in my experience, often when there's a conflict in relationships, this is my experience with it, often to be reconciled last less than an hour and just discussing things, talking about it, clearing our way, forgiving one another, just setting free. It's not that hard work. It just needs to be done. It's hard for a pride to do it. Yes. But let's just lay it down. Let's not be that person. Oh, I don't answer the phone when that particular name comes up. Let's not be that person.

Let's have no enemies as far as on our part is concerned. Let's have open relationships. I believe that open relationships between us are only as good as our relationship with God or vice versa. It goes both ways, folks. The rewards of this is you will be called the children of God. Not only the children of your parents, not only the children of Israel, but the children of God. You will be called. And you know that's the best position to be. It's the best family to be.

We'll see later on in in the sermon that Jesus Jesus puts that family in a in a storm shelter and he protects them and he shelters them. The children of God, that's where we want to be. God bless us. Any thoughts before we pray?