← Cornerstone Chapel - Audio Podcast
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If you're new to Cornerstone, we just go straight through the Bible cover to cover Genesis to Revelation. So we are now here in the book of Colossians on our several time through the Bible. And what I always like to do when we start a new book study together is to give you a brief overview of the book and the background and especially as it relates to the city and to the author of the book. And so first, a little bit about the city. City of Colossae. Now I read from New King James and that's how it is spelled. If you have other versions, it might have an ae at the end instead of just an E. It's just another. Another variation of the spelling of the city. Colossae was an ancient city that is in modern Turkey, about 100 miles east of the ancient city of Ephesus and is about 350 miles south of Istanbul. It was situated along a major trade route in the Lycus Valley Valley, but it was destroyed by an earthquake in the first century A.D. so now there's just rubble, just archaeological remains there of this ancient city. And let's talk a little bit about the letter of Colossians itself. Paul writes this to the church in Colossae while he is in prison in Rome. Roughly 60 to 61 AD is the date of this letter. Now, you might remember from our study in Philippians that Paul wrote Philippians from prison. He writes actually four different epistles and Philippians was one and Colossians is another of these epistles. He writes while he is awaiting trial before Emperor Caesar Nero. He has been imprisoned for preaching the Gospel. He has appealed as a Roman citizen to the highest court, which is Caesar himself. So he is awaiting trial there in Rome. And while there, he writes this letter. Chapter one, verse seven mentions a guy by the name of Epaphras who is thought to be the founding pastor of this church. And in chapter two, verse one, it infers that Paul had never been to this church of Colossae. Most of the letters that Paul writes, he writes to churches that he established that he planted. Colosse is not one of those. He did not plant this church nor has he ever visited it, but he writes to them because he has a heart for the whole body of Christ. And apparently this is the last bullet point. There is some unknown heresy happening in Colossae that Paul wants to address by sending them this letter. This heresy again, is unknown, but it seems to be, when you look at the different things that Paul highlights throughout this letter, that this heresy was a combination of Greek philosophy and Jewish legalism and Eastern mysticism. So. So you'll see throughout the letter how he begins to target these various aspects of this unknown heresy. This heresy basically taught that Christ alone was not sufficient for salvation. There were two main aspects of this heresy. One was that it denied the Trinity being embodied in Christ. We'll see that in chapter two. And also in chapter two, this heresy that Paul addresses is that it denied Christian was complete in Christ. This heresy taught that Christians needed more for their salvation than what Jesus alone provided. And part of the Greek philosophy that had infiltrated this kind of heretical ideology was that one had to have a spiritual enlightenment. One had to have secret knowledge. It's very similar to Gnosticism in the second century or so. But one had to have this secret knowledge and this depth of insight. It's not this Greek philosophy. And then one had to also follow the Jewish rules and regulations. That was the Jewish legalism. In addition, this heresy also apparently taught the worship of angels and that angels were mediators between God and man. So Paul's going to address that too. So it was a real amalgam of a lot of distorted things. And Paul addresses these various aspects of the heresy throughout the letter to the Christians in Colossae. And he wants to focus them on two main the centrality of Christ and the supremacy of Christ. That's what he's going to focus their attention on. And that's a good reminder for every church today. Every church ought to be about the centrality of Christ and the supremacy of Christ. So I'm going to read here from chapter one. I'll read the first 14 verses and then we're going to dig out a section from this passage. Colossians 1, starting at verse 1. Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, and Timothy, our brother to the saints and faithful brethren in Christ, who are in Colossae. Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. We give thanks to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Praying always for you, since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus, and of your love for all the saints, because of the hope which is laid up for you in heaven, of which you heard before in the word of the truth of the Gospel, which has come to you, as it has also in all the world, and is bringing forth fruit, as it is also among you, since the day you heard and and knew the grace of God in truth, as you also learned from Epaphras, our dear fellow servant, who is a faithful minister of Christ. On your behalf, who also declared to us your love in the Spirit. Verse 9. For this reason we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you, and do ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will and all wisdom and spiritual understanding, that you may walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing him, being fruitful in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God, strengthened with all might according to his glorious power, for all patience and long suffering with joy, giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified us to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in the light. Underline that. He has also delivered us from the power of darkness, underline that. And conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of His love, in whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins. I want to draw your attention to those last few verses again, verses 12, 13 and 14, where Paul introduces us to the biblical concept of the existence of two kingdoms. Listen. They are not earthly kingdoms, but they are real. These kingdoms have power and dominion over people in the world. And the truth is that every person is a subject of or belongs to one of these two kingdoms. And these two kingdoms are the kingdom of light and the kingdom of darkness. The kingdom of light is where God resides and rules. The kingdom of darkness is a realm controlled by sin and Satan. Light represents in the Bible what is right, what is pure, what is godly, what is good and true. And darkness in the Bible represents what is evil, impure, bad, ungodly and false. And Paul is saying to us here through this letter in Colossians 1, that when a person surrenders to the lordship of Jesus Christ, that God delivers us from the dominion of darkness and brings us into the kingdom of light, the kingdom of the Son, whom God loves, so that we might share in the inheritance of the saints. This is what Paul writes here in verses 12, 13 and 14. Glance again at your Bibles, verse 12 where Paul says, giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified us to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in the light. He has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of His love, in whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, sins and see all throughout the Bible there is one reference after another to light and darkness, some of it literal references to light and darkness, most of it spiritual or metaphorical references. But all of it is critical for us to understand. And here's the main question that all of us have to answer. Okay, because all of us belong to one of these kingdoms, you cannot belong to both. You are either in the kingdom of light or the kingdom of darkness. The question is for all of us, to which kingdom do you belong? To which kingdom do you belong? Now, by the close of the study, my prayer is that all of us will be able to say, belong to the kingdom of light. But there are people here today, I'm sure, who are part of the kingdom of darkness. Our world is filled with darkness. It is morally corrupt, bankrupt, full of evil and wickedness. And we are a part of that until the Lord Jesus miraculously delivers us and brings us into the kingdom of light, the kingdom of the Son whom God loves. So we have to answer that question, to which kingdom do we currently belong? Because he outlines this as a choice and an opportunity for us. Let's pray and then we'll dig out these verses further. Father God, we thank you for this day that you've given us the rain and all of it. Lord, we just give you glory that you've given us breath for a new day. And we pray God that you would be glorified here as we study your word together. That you would teach us and challenge us and enlighten us. Lord, do your good work in our hearts by your Holy Spirit. We thank you Father. We thank you for loving us. We thank you for dying for us. We're just grateful to be here in your house today. We're mindful, Lord, of the rest of our world and we particularly pray for our soldiers and our airmen, our. Our sailors. Yes, thank you just all who are serving you in the Middle east right now, Lord. Bring them home safely and soon. As soon as the mission is done. We pray for their families, Lord, back home in their absence. Be with them Lord. Bless them, keep them safe. We pray in Jesus name and everyone said Amen. Well, the first reference to light and darkness in the Bible, of course, even if you're not all that familiar with your Bibles, Genesis 1 in the creation account is the first time that light and darkness is mentioned in the Bible. I'll read the first five verses of Genesis Chapter one. Verse one says in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Somebody once I heard say that if you can believe verse one of Genesis chapter one, you can believe the rest of the Bible. If you stumble at verse one, you're going to stumble at a lot of stuff in the rest of the Bible. In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. Verse 2 says the earth was without form and void and darkness was on the face of the deep and the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters. And then God said, let there be light. And there was light. And God saw the light, that it was good. And God divided the light from darkness. And God called the light day, and the darkness he called night. And so the evening and the morning were the first day. So this is a reference, obviously, to literal light and darkness and how God separated the two. And he called the light daytime, and he called the darkness nighttime. But the Bible uses that literal reality of the creation story to communicate the spiritual reality of light and darkness in these two different kingdoms. For example, in Second Corinthians 4, 6, listen to what Paul wrote. He says, for it is the God who commanded light to shine out of darkness, who has shown in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. Paul says the same God who spoke everything into existence in the Genesis account is the same God who shines into our hearts the light of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. Also, there's another example, Paul. In 1 Thessalonians, Paul talks about how the followers of Christ should be living in a way consistent with the example of Christ. And he talks about light and darkness. Here in First Thessalonians 5, verses 5 to 8, Listen, he says, you are all sons of light and sons of the day, because he's talking about believers. We are not of the night, nor of darkness. Therefore, let us not sleep as others do, but let us watch and be sober. For those who sleep, sleep at night, and those who get drunk, get drunk at night. But let us who are of the day be sober, putting away, or rather putting on the breastplate of faith and love and as a helmet, the hope of salvation. So there are many times throughout Scripture where the Bible speaks about light and darkness, both literal and metaphorical, spiritual. This concept of light and darkness and good and evil, though, is not a novel idea. People who don't read the Bible or go to church or claim to be Christians generally understand this concept of light and darkness and good and evil, because, for one thing, Hollywood has captured this whole theme. In a lot of Hollywood movies, you have this constant reference to light and darkness, darkness portraying evil. And there's usually a villain in the plot. And then you have this battle with light. And light represents what is good. And there's always some superhero in the whole story. And so all these different movies, Guardians of the Galaxy and Batman and Superman and Spider man and Lord of the Rings and Star wars, it all has this theme of light and darkness, you know, Star wars is constantly talking about, you know, come to the dark side. You know, I mean, it's just like, you know, I am your father, okay? Like, you know, that's pretty dark. And. And yet that's the theme throughout all these movies. It's like light versus darkness and, you know, good versus evil. So this isn't anything new. In fact, Hollywood basically has adopted those themes for those movies from the Bible, because the Bible talks about this. This is the reality in which we live. There are two kingdoms. There's a kingdom of light, and there's a kingdom of darkness. You have to know this reality because you belong to one of them. Every single one of us belongs to one of them. Now, let me make sure I say this clearly before we go any further in this whole concept of the two kingdoms between light and darkness. The battle between light and darkness is not a fight between equals. Darkness must retreat when light comes into the room. The same is true about the kingdom of darkness. It is inferior to the kingdom of light, and it must flee at the presence of the Lord. Nevertheless, there is presently a conflict between these two kingdoms, and we must understand where we fit in this conflict. So I want to share with you some key verses from the Bible that talk about light and darkness and these two kingdoms so we understand what are these kingdoms about and to which do I belong. I'm going to be reciting a lot of different verses, too many for us to put on the screen and. And too many for you to follow along. But I'll make sure that I give the reference clearly so you can take notes if you're taking notes. But I am going to put up this chart of contrast to at least give you five points on each side so we understand five points about the kingdom of light, five points about the kingdom of darkness. And the first one, if you're taking notes, is the kingdom of light is God's domain. And the first verse I'm going to share is First Timothy 6:16. This is what First Timothy 6:16 says, God alone has immortality, dwelling in unapproachable light, whom no man has seen or can see, to whom be honor and everlasting power. Amen. That's 1 Timothy 6:16. So it tells us there clearly that God dwells in unapproachable light. In fact, in 1 John 1:5, 1 John 1:5 says, God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. God is light. Now, it's interesting. Scientifically, we know some things about light that most light on the light spectrum is invisible to the human eye. Most light on the light spectrum is invisible to the human eye. Things like gamma rays and ultraviolet rays and X rays and infrared rays, microwaves and radar. That's part of the light spectrum. Don't you wish you could see radar with your eyes, huh? Coming around the corner, going 75 miles an hour, and you can see it before they get you. That's invisible. It's on the invisible light spectrum. Sunlight is visible to us, but scientists say, listen to this. We can only see along the light spectrum. Point.0035% of all light. That's all the human eye can see.0035% of the entire light spectrum. That's all we can see. So God is a part of the invisible light spectrum. And in order to be visible to us, God wrapped himself in flesh and took on a body, and his name is Jesus, so that the invisible God could be visible to us. In fact, I stopped reading at first at Colossians 1:14, but at the very next verse, Colossians 1:15 says that Jesus Christ is the image of the invisible God. He is the image of the invisible God. God wraps himself in flesh so that we can see the invisible God who is a part of the invisible light spectrum. So God's dominion is the kingdom of light. But conversely, the kingdom of darkness is Satan's domain. This is Ephesians 5, 11 and 12. Ephesians 5, 11 and12 have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness, but rather expose them. For it is shameful even to mention what the disobedient do in secret. See, this is Satan's domain. He loves to keep sin in secret. He loves to keep you in bondage to what is hidden, to what is in the darkness. It's vulnerable when we come into the light, when we step into the light and we admit our sins and we confess our sins. And it's vulnerable to do that, but it's freeing to do that, because when we bring it into the light, it breaks the bondage of the secrecy that is held in darkness. This is where Satan operates. His domain is the darkness. In fact, in 2nd Corinthians 4, verses 3 and 4, 2nd Corinthians 4 3. But even if our gospel is veiled, Paul writes, it is veiled to those who are perishing whose minds the God of this age, small G. It's a reference to Satan, whose minds the God of this age has blinded, who do not believe, lest the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the Image of God should shine on them. The reason why there are a lot of people in darkness is because Satan has blinded them. That's why we need to be praying for our friends and our loved ones, that their eyes would be open to the truth, that they would see the light, because darkness has blinded them and the God of this age, Small G. Satan has kept people in that darkness. And remember that Paul also says in Second Corinthians 11:14 that Satan masquerades as an angel of light. He tries to put on this appearance that it's wonderful if you follow him, but he's really the master of darkness. He just masquerades as an angel of light. Back to the kingdom of light. Side number two. Jesus rules there. This is John 1:4:5. John 1:4:5 says, in him, in Jesus was life, and the life was the light of men. And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it. John opens his Gospel there in John chapter one, talking about how the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. And we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. But sadly, it speaks there also that Jesus came among his own, but his own received him not. That's what John 1:4:5 is also referring to. Light stepped into a dark world, but men did not comprehend it. They didn't recognize him for who he truly is. Also in Revelation 21:23 speaks about how much brilliance Jesus has that we don't even need the sun in heaven. S u n we don't need the sun in heaven because Jesus is the brilliance of heaven. Listen to John. Revelation 21:23. Heaven had no need of the sun or of the moon to shine in it, for the glory of God illuminated it. The Lamb is its light. Who was the lamb? It's Jesus. He is the light. The glory of God will illuminate all of heaven. We don't need the sun to be shining because Jesus is the light. He rules in the kingdom of light. On the kingdom of darkness side, though, the opposite is true. Evil rules. Evil rules. In John chapter 3, Jesus was speaking this. Verses 19 and 20, he said, and this is the condemnation. Light has come into the world. He's talking about himself. He says, but men loved darkness rather than the light because their deeds were evil. See, that's where evil rules, in the darkness. And Jesus adds in verse 20 of John 3, for everyone practicing evil hates the light and does not come into the light, lest his deeds should be exposed. So, again, it's what I said a moment ago. People don't want to be vulnerable, so they don't want to step into the light. They would rather stay in the darkness. But if you stay in the darkness, you're in bondage to sin, and God wants to deliver you. So evil rules in the kingdom of darkness. But on the light side, the kingdom of light is where truth triumphs. Jesus has this conversation in John chapter 18 with Pontius Pilate just before Pilate condemns him to death. And Jesus says to Pontius pilate, in John 18:36, he says, My kingdom is not of this world. He's talking about the kingdom of light. And he says, look, I'm not here to establish an earthly kingdom. Pilate, you don't need to be threatened, right? He says, my kingdom is not of this world. Well, the next verse, John 18:37, Pilate says, oh, you are a king then. Because Jesus said, my kingdom is not of this world. You know how they had trumped up these charges against Jesus trying to get Jesus crucified? By saying that he is guilty of sedition because he claims to be king. King of the Jews, king of Israel. And there's only one king in that day that they recognized, which was Caesar. Anyone who asserted to be king, that was sedition against the king, the emperor Nero. So Jesus says to Pontius Pilate, my kingdom is not of this world. And Pilate goes, oh, you're a king then, Ah, gotcha. And Jesus responds by saying, you are right in saying that I am a king. For this reason I was born, and for this cause, I came into the world to testify to the truth. And everyone on the side of truth listens to me. That's John 18:37. He says, for this reason I was born, and for this cause, I came into the world to testify to the truth. Truth triumphs in the kingdom of light. It's why everybody, we need to be people of truth. We cannot compromise on the smallest level. I was a part of a podcast this week with Heidi St. John, and she was talking to me about how there's this prevalence in the church, sadly today, where people are compromising the truth because they think, well, it's not really a salvation issue. So, like, for example, if somebody wants to be called by a different pronoun, it's not a salvation issue. Let's just go ahead and acknowledge their different pronouns that don't line up with their biological sex. And she was asking me my opinion about it. I said, here's the problem. When we start to compromise on these little kinds of truths. We are dishonoring Jesus because Jesus is the embodiment and personification of truth. When Jesus says, I am the way, the truth, and the life, no man comes to the Father but by me. And we compromise by not telling the truth in all situations, quote, big or small, we are dishonoring the Lord, who is the personification of truth. Christian, listen to me. We have to be truth tellers. Now, there's a right way to say the truth. You don't have to be abrasive. You don't have to come across, you know, super spiritual and judgmental, but you still must speak the truth. Because anything less than that, aligning ourselves with Satan because Jesus said he is a liar and the father of lies. And the moment you let in any lie, you are honoring Satan and you are dishonoring Jesus because Jesus is the personification of truth. Be truth tellers. Everybody be truth tellers. On the kingdom of darkness, look what dominates. Deception. Deception. Proverbs 4:19. Proverbs 4:19 says, the way of the wicked is like darkness. They do not know what makes them stumble. The wicked, they're deceived. They don't even know what makes them stumble. And in 1 John 1:6, it says, if we say that we have fellowship with God and walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth like we're deceived. If we say we're a Christian and yet we're doing things that are consistent with the kingdom of darkness, we're deceived. And so, especially as Christians, if you're a Christ follower, we have to walk in the light as he is in the light, and then we will have fellowship with one another. And the blood of his Son, Jesus Christ cleanses us from all unrighteousness. We have to understand this. The kingdom of darkness is laced with deception. And we are living in an age where people are easily deceived and people are saying deceptive things. We had better wake up and have discernment of the Spirit to be able to distinguish between a truth and a lie. There's so much information now at our fingertips. We are inundated with information. We do not lack for information, right? Because you pick up your device, your phone, your computer, whatever, you're gonna get a constant bombardment of information, okay? The real issue is not more information. The real issue is do you have wisdom to discern the information you're hearing or reading? And, friends, there are a lot of popular social influencers, whatever that means, okay, who are out there now. Saying deceptive things. Okay, I'm not going to mention Candace Owens name, but I'm just saying Tucker Carlson. I'm just going to say, look, I'm being very genuine. You have to be able to discern some of the things that are coming out of people's mouths and realize this is of the dominion of darkness. They are saying things. Look, just a little side trail, okay? If you do not have enough discernment to hear how Candace Owens is throwing Erica Kirk under the bus and all this conjecture and all this theory and all this I feel and I think and all this stuff, you are deceived as much as she is for saying it. You better wake up to some of this stuff. You better filter some of the things you're hearing and realize, man, I better have the Holy Spirit's discernment on this. Because some of this stuff, some of it might be true that some people say on social media. I'm not saying that all of it is bad, okay? And praise God for social media and for the Internet because we're going out right now to thousands of people, okay? I'm not saying all bad. I'm saying make sure you discern what is right from what is wrong, what is good from what is evil, from what is true and what is false. We must not be deceived. And this generation is buying things hook, line and sinker. And just because it's out there does not mean it is true. Be wise about it, everybody. Be wise about it. Be discerning about it. The kingdom of darkness thrives on deception and it will do what it can to deceive you. I know a lot of people are going to unfollow me now, and some of you just will forget this guy. Okay, fine. I'm not here to please you. I'm here to please the Lord. So that's all I want to say about that. On the kingdom of light side, though, everybody look. It leads to life. Listen to what Jesus said in John 8:12. Jesus said, I am the light of the world. He who follows me shall not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life. We have life through Jesus Christ. I've come to give you life, he said, and life more abundantly. He's come to give us eternal life. He's come to save us from our sins that we might have the fullness of life. He is the light of the world that came to give us the light of life. But the kingdom of darkness leads to death. It leads to death. Isaiah, the prophet in Isaiah 9:2 said, the people who walked in darkness have seen a great light. Now that's a positive thing. But notice the next sentence. Those who dwelt in the land of the of darkness were in the shadow of death, but upon them a light has shined. What was Isaiah talking about? We know he was talking about prophetically, Jesus. How do we know that? Because Jesus in Matthew 4:16 quotes Isaiah 92 and he says, that's me. I came as a light into the dark world. And Isaiah says there in Isaiah 9:2, those living in darkness are living in the shadow of death. See, Satan just wants people to go to hell with him. He wants to take as many people with him to eternal punishment because he knows his ultimate destination. So his ambition is to take as many people with him. The kingdom of darkness leads to death. And sadly staying on the same column, you need to understand, you're born into it. You're born into it, otherwise it wouldn't tell us here in Colossians 1:13, we just read it earlier that God the Lord has delivered us from the power of darkness. Well, you can't be delivered from something unless you're in it. We start there because we are sinful creatures. We are born in with a sin nature to the kingdom of darkness. And Peter will say the same thing about being delivered once we come to trust Christ. 1 Peter 2:9 says, but you are a chosen generation, a royal priest, priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God that you might declare the praises of him who brought you out of darkness into his marvelous light. So see, we start in the darkness, but God wants to bring us into the light, which is the last point here. The kingdom of light you are born again into by faith you must be born again. All of us are born physically, we're born naturally, our mother gives us birth. But because of our sin nature, we're born into a dark kingdom. And we're part of that dark kingdom until such time that we step into the light and realize that Jesus Christ loves us and died on a cross for us, to rescue us from sin and death and to give us life and forgiveness. And so you must be born again. And that's how you're born again. When you trust Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, trust him by faith. What he did on that cross was sufficient for you and for me to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. You receive him by faith. That's what Paul means here when he says, God then delivers us from the dominion of darkness and he brings us into the kingdom of the Son, he loves that we might share in the inheritance of the saints. So I end where I began. To which kingdom do you belong? If you recognize on this list I'm really part of the dominion of darkness, then trust Christ today. Surrender your life to him and you can move from the left side of the. From the right side of the column to the left side of the column. From being in the dominion of darkness to being into the kingdom of light. If you trust him, trust him as your Lord and Savior today and step into the kingdom of light. He came to rescue us. Listen to what Jesus said and I'll close with this. This is John 12:46. John 12:46. I have come into the world as a light so that no one who believes in me should stay in darkness. You don't need to stay there. Be free. Let's pray. Father God, we thank you for your word today. And we thank you that you stepped into the world as the light of the world to save us from our sins and to rescue us from the dim darkness. I pray right now, Lord, for those who would acknowledge that they're a part of the dominion of darkness. We all start there. And for those who are still there right now, I pray that today the eyes of their heart would be open that they would receive you and understand that you came into this world as a light to shine into our dark hearts the truth of who you are and how you love us so much that you died for us. I pray right now, Lord, that men and women and young people who don't know you would trust you today as Lord and Savior, that they would surrender their lives to your Lordship. And I'm going to pause in my prayer and just invite you. If you don't know Christ as your savior, come into the light today. Come out of the darkness. Step into the light by trusting Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior. He'll forgive you of your sins. He'll give you life everlasting. Jesus rules in the kingdom of light and he came as the light of the world to set us free. If you want that freedom today, pray a prayer with me right where you're seated. Just say, lord Jesus, I trust you today as my Lord and Savior. I believe you came into the world to rescue me from the dominion of darkness. Thank you, Jesus for loving me that you would die on that cross for my sins. Forgive me of my sins today. Come into my life and save me that I might be delivered from the dominion of darkness and brought into the kingdom of light to serve you and to follow you all the days of my life. And I pray this by faith in Jesus name. Everybody look at me for just a minute. If you prayed that prayer today, there's gonna be a pastor down front to give you a Bible. Come up after the service. Get a Bible. They'll pray over you. We want nothing from you. We just want to give it to you. And if you prayed that prayer anywhere around the world, we'll send you a Bible. If you text the church, just text us. I have decided. 703-844-9969. We'll send you a Bible anywhere around the world. Walk in the light, everybody, as you follow Jesus. God bless you. Have a.