A (0:03)

Welcome to Mariners Church Weekend Message Podcast. Inspiring people to follow Jesus and fearlessly change the world. Discover your purpose and get connected by visiting MarinersChurch.org or click the link in the show notes.

B (0:26)

Well, welcome to Mariners Church. I'm so glad that you are with us this weekend. If we haven't met, my name is Eric. I'm the senior pastor here. I want to welcome all our congregations that are watching right now. I am really excited about next weekend's message, next weekend's message, because we launch a new teaching series next weekend called the Week that Changed the World. Some of you are new to the Christian faith, but you've heard the phrase Passion Week. It's really fascinating because the gospels in the scripture, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, those tell the good news of Jesus arriving and of his life, his death and his resurrection. A third of the gospel accounts are about one week in his life. One week. The week that changed the world. It's the week leading up to the resurrection of Jesus from the dead. It's known historically as Passion Week. And so what we're going to begin doing next week is walking through the major events of Passion Week as we move our hearts towards Easter. I hope you'll join us. It'll be a great weekend to invite friends to join you at all of our congregations. On your way out, you can grab some cards to invite friends to be with you. We've been dealing with some really challenging subjects in this teaching series on the Table. The reason I'm so excited about next week is we just get to hang out with Jesus. We get to hang out with Jesus for six weeks as we move towards Easter. So I hope you'll join us. But this week we are wrapping up our teaching series on the Table and we're putting a major question on the table. Lifeway Research is a national research group, and they recently released research where 80% of the respondents that they surveyed said that they would appreciate hearing a message on borders and immigration, that they would like to see what the scripture says about borders and immigration, which is where we're going to spend time together today. But before we jump in, would you spend a moment praying with me? And just to help you focus, would you bow your head at all of our congregations and close your eyes and would you first pray for me? Pray that every word I speak would be his words, that even every move I make, all my gestures, my tone would reflect the character of Jesus. And would you pray for yourself that God would speak to you through his word? God, I pray you meet with Your sons and daughters in your scripture, as you always do, in your name I pray. Amen. The story of the world and the story of history is in many ways a story of immigration, the movement of people God created across the world that he created. In fact, Yale Professor Ellsworth Huntington said it this way. History in its broadest aspect is a record of man's migration from one environment to another. Patrick Manning, a professor at the University of Pittsburgh, wrote that immigration is a human habit and immigration is a thread running through our history as a species. While the conversations about immigration are elevated in our current cultural context, immigration is not new. Many historians have divided immigration into two broad categories, voluntary immigration and forced immigration. So voluntary immigration is when people seek a new opportunity or they want to be closer to a family member. Proximity to family, they that's voluntary immigration. My grandfather's family immigrated to the US through Ellis island, and he grew up in a home that didn't speak English. He learned English in the public school system, and he would speak about America. I heard my grandfather speak about the opportunities of America and how they wanted to come here. And there's no place like this because of the opportunity. He graduated high school, started a farm, and his farm, the farm my grandfather started, became one of the largest farms in Illinois. He was the first to say, I started from the bottom, now I'm here. He wasn't the first to say that. That's not true. But what is true is that in 1982, the President of the United States at the time, Ronald Reagan, delivered a speech from my grandfather's farm. It was a highlight of my grandfather's life. This isn't my uncle driving President Ronald Reagan around our family farm. And my grandfather would say, only in America could this happen. Only in America could you, one generation from immigrating to this country later, have the President of the United States deliver a speech from your family farm. So that's immigration about opportunity. Twenty years ago, the LA Times released an article, this is about internal immigration within the US that people were immigrating to California from cold weather states because they turned on the Rose bowl in early January and saw the weather in Southern California and said, I want some of that. And they immigrated here. Some of you immigrated to Texas and you've immigrated back because you're wise. Because you're wise and you're with us. That's immigration about opportunity. And then there's forced immigration. Now that is when people are compelled to immigrate by war, persecution, or disaster. A year ago at this time, I visited Some of our partners in Kenya, and they were serving groups of refugees from Sudan who left Sudan and entered into Kenya because of war. And they were forced. They were forced refugees. Now most scholars and historians and sociologists will look at those two categories, voluntary and forced, and say the line is really blurry between the two. And I know this because I I lived and served in Miami for eight years. And at the time when I lived in Miami, it was the only city in the US where more than half of the residents were born outside of the US which means many of my closest friends in Miami were immigrants. And if you ask them if it was voluntary or force, the line was really blurry. Somebody who immigrated to the US after the earthquake in Haiti, they didn't volunteer to lose everything they had, but they did volunteer to come to the United States. What they believed was the best opportunity for them. Or a friend who immigrated from Venezuela because of the crime and the safety or the lack of safety for their family or. Or a friend who immigrated to the US From Cuba because of an oppressive government. For them, it wasn't super clean between forced and voluntary. It felt like the only option they had. But of all the places in the world they wanted to live, it was the United States of America. Borders and Immigration why do some Christians hold different views? That is the question that we are putting on the table. I want you to notice the question. The question is not how should you think about immigration? That is not what I'm teaching this weekend. I want to be helpful to you. I know that this is a conversation that is causing division in many families. There's families who have said this has been very challenging for us or even life groups where there's disagreement. And so what I want to do is serve you well by giving you a framework that I believe will help you navigate the conversation with both grace and truth. I'm not going to advocate for a policy in this message, nor am I going to reference a recent cultural event or a flashpoint event. If you've been following me or allowing me to pastor you for the last seven years, you've noticed that many years ago I stopped feeling the pressure or responding to the pressure to respond to everything on social media. I've told our team that I'm not going to be first. But when we speak to a cultural issue, it's going to be an enduring question that the culture keeps asking, like this question. But we're not going to be first to respond. We're going to be thoughtful and intentional and biblical. And so for you who are always waiting for me to say something on social media. I'm sorry that I'm disappointing you, but I don't want to be the first to respond. I want to step back and be thoughtful and biblical, and that's how I'm going to try to approach this message this weekend. Why do some Christians have different perspectives? I'm going to ask you throughout this whole message to not applaud. And I love that that's going to be hard for you, because we love to applaud here. When we study God's word, we talk about the grace of Jesus, we get excited, and I love that about us. But I understand that this conversation has brought pain to people in this room and in all of our congregations. And I don't want this to feel like a jab as we interact with the scripture. If you want more, we do have a podcast. It's called if I Had More Time. And I sit down for 90 minutes with two individuals that the culture sometimes says are very different from one another. Dr. Wayne Grudem is a renowned theologian. He's a systematic theologian. He. He's written in support of President Trump's immigration policies. And then Matthew Sorens is a vice president for World Relief, and he's advocated for the immigrant to multiple administrations. I think if you listen to the podcast, what you'll conclude is that though the culture will try to set these guys up as being very different and distinct from one another in terms of their views, that they're actually very close and that they can have a kind and gracious conversation. I believe it's a really good model for. For all of us, that we as mature Christians can have conversations with both truth and grace. You'll notice this picture was taken at the very beginning of the podcast. And I'm kind of like, I hope this works. I hope this works. And it worked. It was a great podcast. Dr. Grudem brought up this verse, which I want to implore you with as we jump in. A fool does not delight in understanding, but only wants to show off his opinions. And so let's delight in understanding. I do want you to understand that you are hearing this message among immigrants. Immigrants in our church. One of our shepherding elders came to the US As a baby when his family was displaced from their home country. A church in the Midwest welcomed and housed them, planting seeds of faith and hospitality that forever shaped his life. A married couple in our church has been faithfully serving for years, one a US Citizen and one not. Though marriage is often seen as a sure path to citizenship. They've been waiting for seven years with no end in sight. A mother we serve through our outreach ministries came to the US at age 3 and has been a DACA recipient that is Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals. She's been a Daca recipient since 2012. She's a wife, mom of two, and a faithful volunteer who works, contributes and pays taxes. Despite her deep roots here, she's been unable to secure citizenship. A member of Mariner Santa Ana lives with a deportation order after her residency was suspended. Her husband and four children are citizens, yet her own legal status remains uncertain despite financial loss. Through dishonest attorneys, she places her faith in Jesus continually. In Mariners North Irvine, by the way, Mariners Santa Ana, Mariners North Irvine. They're all tapped in right now. In Mariners North Irvine, a couple fled Iran after years of secretly following Jesus, traveling to Armenia to worship safely. Now seeking asylum in the US they serve in our food pantry translating for Farsi speaking refugees. At Mariners Anaheim, a couple escaped violence in the Congo. They pour into others through a couple's life group, the prayer team and the worship team alongside their daughter. To each of you who you allowed me to share your story and to those of you who your story is very similar. I love you and I'm honored to be in the same family with you. Your pastor has aged since he became your pastor. I got readers recently because at nighttime when I'm trying to read, I read all the time. My eyes get really blurry. So I've got readers and the readers, when I place them on the lens impacts how I see everything. You have a lens from which you see this conversation? We all have the lens of our relationships. Some of you have close relationships with someone who's an immigration officer. That's going to be a lens. Of course it's going to be a lens that causes you to see this conversation a certain way. If you are close friends with an immigrant who's navigating the complexities of the immigration process, of course that lens is gonna cause you to see this conversation a certain way. Your political affiliation is a lens. Your algorithm on social media is a lens. But I want us, by God's grace, over the next couple of moments to allow the scripture to be the first lens that we look at any question we ask, but including this question. So what I'm gonna do over the next couple moments, Listen, I know you love me. I know you do. And I love you. And you know I. I never wanna manipulate. I'm not manipulating you. I wanna be. I Want to look at the scripture together and let the scripture speak. So what I'm going to do is we're going to look at several scriptures about the immigrant, and then we're going to look at several scriptures about borders and loss. And then I'm going to give you the tensions that we hold, which will serve as a framework to help you navigate the conversations in our current culture. So first, scripture about the immigrant. When you read the whole of the Bible, you see that many of God's people are recounted as immigrants. And Abraham fled Israel because of a famine and went to Egypt. He was confronted with an ethical decision. Does he tell the truth about his wife's identity or does he lie to save his own life? And he lied and said that his wife was his sister. Abraham's descendants also immigrated under a famine with the permission of Pharaoh to Egypt. And so they immigrated with the knowledge and the permission of the pharaoh. Then God's people grew under Egyptian slavery. Moses the then immigrated out of Egypt and went to another land as he was fearing for his life. Then he went back to Egypt and he led God's people out of Egypt. He led refugees out of Egypt. You keep reading the scripture and you get to the story of Ruth. Ruth was in Moab and her husband died and she immigrated to Israel. And when she gets to Israel, the laws that God had in place to provide care for the immigrant, she benefited from those laws, the gleaning laws, as she walked behind others who were harvesting in the field so that she could provide for herself and for her family. And then she met a man and married a man named Boaz. And she's in the lineage of Jesus. This immigrant is in the lineage of Jesus. You keep reading the scripture, you get to David. David crossed borders when he was seeking asylum because the King Saul was hunting him down. And he went and asked for permission if he could enter into another country claiming asylum so that he could be protected. And then we get to Jesus, Jesus's family after Jesus is born there in Bethlehem. Herod, the king of all of Judea, says that any child whose male should be slaughtered. The family of Jesus leaves from Bethlehem and goes to Egypt. Now every Christmas time, people hold up Jesus for their their place in the debate about immigration. I want to be honest about the cultural context. Jesus's family left Bethlehem and went to Egypt. They both Bethlehem and Egypt were in the same Roman Empire. So it was immigration within the empire. And we should not forget that Jesus family registered in Bethlehem. So they were documented within the Roman Empire. But at the same time they did flee because they were being persecuted. Jesus was going to be killed according to the decree, and so they went to Egypt. Now, all of those accounts that are all in the scripture are descriptions about what happened and not prescriptions. But there are prescriptions in the Old Testament. The most common word for immigrant in the Old Testament is the word ger. It's a Hebrew word, ger, and it's translated immigrant or resident alien. It's more than 80 times found in the Old Testament. I'm not going to read all 80 verses because we would be here all day. But. But I do want to show you three places where immigrant or ger is used. Now, before I read the passages, we must understand that this was God's covenant law, his divine law to his covenant people, Israel. This is not a modern nation state like ours. This was God in a special relationship with Israel. So as we read this, we have to be cautious that we don't try to apply it to the country in which we live. But we can ask, we can ask, what can we learn about the character of God and his heart for the immigrant as we read these passages? So this is God's word. I'll start in Deuteronomy, chapter 10, verse 17. For the Lord your God is the great, is the God of gods, the Lord of lords, the great, mighty and all inspiring God, showing no partiality and taking no bribe. He executes justice for the fatherless and the widow and. And loves the gur, the resident alien, giving him food and clothing. You are also to love the gur, the resident alien, since you were resident aliens in the land of Egypt. This is God's word. Here's what God tells his people that he's brought into the promised land that he had for them. Hey, remember that you were once a gur, an alien, a resident alien in Egypt. And I cared for you, I provided for you. You care for the resident aliens among you. If you keep reading, you get another example. Zachariah, chapter 7, verse 9 and 10. The Lord of armies says this. Make fair decisions. Show faithful love and compassion to one another. Do not oppress the widow or the fatherless, the gur, that's the resident alien or the poor. And do not plot evil in your hearts against one another. But this is God's word. Now scholars look at this passage and reference the quartet of the vulnerable 4 groups of people that we see throughout the Old Testament that are likely to be taken advantage of by others. It's the fatherless, the widow, the poor, and the immigrant. And God's heart is for them. And he tells his people to not take advantage of them. One more passage. The book of Leviticus, chapter 19, verse 33. When an alien, that's a Gur, an immigrant, resides with you in your land, you must not oppress him. You will regard the alien who resides with you as the native born among you. You are to love him as yourself. For you were aliens in the land of Egypt. I am the Lord your God. This is God's word. When you read the law, which, if you're new to the Bible, the law in the Old Testament, you find in the book of Leviticus and the book of Deuteronomy, you see that God was integrating the ger, the immigrant who wanted to be there, who wanted to be in the covenant community of God's people. He was integrating them holistically, fully. There was spiritual integration. There's commands in the law that the immigrant participates in Passover and in the Sabbath. So spiritual integration. There was social integration. There was commands about festivals and celebrations, and the immigrant is included in those festivals. There is economic integration. There were laws in the law that those who harvested crops were to leave crops on the ground. It's known as the gleaning laws, where the immigrant could come and harvest from what was left on the ground. So this was not a handout. This was allowing the immigrant to work with dignity, to provide for himself or herself and for the family. And there was legal integration because the immigrant is allowed for in the law to have a case fairly heard. And so you see in the law, when the immigrant desires to be a part, again, this is the Old Testament law, God's covenant people. When the immigrant desired to be within the covenant community, that integration happens spiritually, socially, economically, and legally. But I want to be clear. Please don't miss this part. Inclusion into the covenant community also met adhering to the laws that God gave his people. The very next chapter is Leviticus chapter 20. And Leviticus chapter 20 says that if anyone, an Israelite or a Gur, a resident alien, offers their kids to Moloch, which was a false little G God, then that person should be put to death. And if anyone has an adulterous relationship, they should be put to death. So the same section of the law that says welcome the immigrant, welcome the outsider, also says Stone, the idol worshiper. Now, this is jarring for us to read in our modern context. And we want to ask what we can learn from this. Obviously, I'm grateful we don't live under the Old Testament law where an idol worshiper is stoned because I am at times in my life have worshiped things other than God. I've been the idol worshiper. I have placed other things in my heart ahead of him. So what can we learn? This is important within Israel, the covenant community of God's people. In the Old Testament, compassion towards the immigrant was embedded in a community with strong loss against sin, crime and disorder. Compassion and order are right next to each other in the same section of God's law for his people. It's selective reading and selective quoting to say the love the immigrant verses without the context of the covenant community. Israel was to be radically inclusive of people and radically intolerant of evil. God's law for Israel helps us recognize that care for the vulnerable most thrives when evil is restrained. Which brings us to verses about borders and loss. So let me bring us to verses about borders and loss. Is everybody tracking with me so far this. You don't have to. You can't clap, but you can. You can nod and say yes. All right, so, borders and laws. Numbers, chapter 34, verse 2. This is God giving land to his people and establishing borders for them. Command the Israelites and say to them, when you enter the land of Canaan, it will be allotted to you as an inheritance. With these borders, God gave clear borders to Israel. We finished this fall studying the book of Nehemiah. You remember in the book of Nehemiah that God led Nehemiah to rebuild the wall of Jerusalem so that God's people could thrive. So they also then could be a blessing to the nations. And so God established borders. We see this in the New Testament as well. The Apostle Paul wrote in Acts, chapter 17, from One man, referring to Jesus, he has made every nationality to live over the whole earth and has determined their appointed times and the boundaries of where they live, so that God is the one who. He's ultimately overseeing all of the nations and all of the boundaries. Now, this verse is not teaching that everyone who establishes a boundary does so with a pure motive. We know that's not true. We know that people have conquered other people and lands and boundaries have expanded. But what this verse is teaching is that in some sovereign God's providence over everything, he uses even the evil intentions of people to set nations where he has them in the seasons that he has them, and those nations have clear boundaries. And then you see in Romans, chapter 13 How God desires governing leaders to care for the citizens of the nation that they oversee, that they would push evil back, that they would seek the prospering of the nation that they are responsible for. Romans 13, verse 1 through 3. Let everyone submit to the governing authorities, since there is no authority except from God, and the authorities that exist are instituted by God. So then the one who resists the authority is opposing God's command. And those who oppose it will bring judgment on themselves. For rulers are not a terror to good conduct, but to bad, meaning a ruler supposed to restrain evil and let good prosper in the nation that the ruler's responsible for. Do you want to be unafraid of the one in authority? Do what is good and you will have its approval. This is God's word. Okay, so what do we do with these. These verses? We don't want to be a group of Christians here at Mariners Church that just throws verses at each other without stepping back and looking at the whole counsel of God's word. How do we hold all of these together? Remember, the question on the table is why do some Christians have different viewpoints? I'm gonna give you a tool. I think this is gonna be helpful. My goal this weekend is to help you. I wanna help you navigate conversations with grace and truth. This framework, I believe, will serve you well. There's three tensions I'm gonna surface that I want you. I wanna encourage you to hold. The first is image of God and sinfulness of people. I received this from a good friend of mine, Carlos Lillette. We were good friends together in Miami and we still talk regularly. Carlos immigrated to the US From Venezuela. I asked him about the immigration process, what it did for him. He said two things. Number one, anyone who goes through the immigration process like I did loves America more than you could ever imagine. I am so patriotic because I learned I probably know more about America than people who'd ever went through the process. I love our country, number one. Number two, it is more complex than most people realize. It took Carlos 21 years to go through the immigration process. See, some people have said, well, I don't understand. Why isn't somebody just like, go down to the DMV and fill out the paperwork and become a citizen? As if the DMV is easy. It's not. But going through the immigration process is extremely challenging. It took Carlos 21 years. And you may not have known this. I didn't know this till Carlos taught me this. That all immigration policy is in the executive branch of our government. Which means this is the reason that immigrants, those who are going through the process of immigration, can be apprehensive anytime there is a change in the office of President, because immigration policy is in the executive branch. They could be halfway through the process, and everything can change with a stroke of a pen. And so I asked Carlos, man, what. How do you, as someone who's immigrated to the US and you love our country, how do you hold together loving the immigrant and also valuing that we are a nation of laws and borders? And Carlos said, image of God, sinfulness of people. Because he doesn't want the country he's immigrated to the US to spiral into the chaos of Venezuela, the country that he left. So he wants strong laws and borders, and he wants the immigrant to be treated with respect. So image of God, sinfulness of people. Image of God should remind us this. We should speak well of the immigrant. Because every person is created in the image of God. God's image is on the immigrant. He created the immigrant. He loves the immigrant. Us holding tightly as believers to the doctrine, the belief that God's image is on everyone, should cause us to speak well of immigrants and to insist and care for that immigrants are treated well even when laws are being enforced. Image of God, sinfulness of people. Sinfulness of people means that it is wise to long for a nation to have laws and order because sinfulness of people means that there's evil in the world and we want law and order because we don't want evil to thrive. It takes maturity to hold both. Image of God, sinfulness of people. My wife and I love using the home that God's given us to be hospitable and at this phase in our life because we have two teenage daughters, we love when they have their friends over. For over a year, we had Once a week, 100 plus high school students, juniors and seniors in our home for a Bible study, jammed into the living room, all up the side of the stairwell. It was epic. It was so awesome. The image of God is on all of them. So we love them, we welcome them. But because of sinfulness of people, when they leave, I lock our doors, I lock our doors. We can hold both. Image of God, sinfulness of people. That's number one. Number two, number one, I want you to hold this tension. Love of kingdom and love of country, love of kingdom. Many of you have come to faith in Jesus over the last several years. I love what he's doing in your life. I rejoice about God's grace in your life. And you have learned this, that you're gonna spend everlasting life with Jesus, but you're not gonna spend everlasting life with Jesus alone. The scripture says that heaven is currently being populated with people from every single tribe, tongue and nation. That Jesus is the lamb of God who was slain and he is reconciling people to himself from every single tribe, tongue and nation. That we are going to be an everlasting life with people from all peoples, with people that God is rescuing to himself, reconciling to himself through Jesus. He's reconciling us into one in everlasting life. And some are like, I don't know, I don't know if I like that. I like just being with people who are just like me. Well, you're not going to like heaven that much. You're currently not ready for heaven, but he still loves you. He's going to keep working on you. He's going to keep changing you. And if you're like, not, not me, I'm never going to be changed, well then you've never met him and you're not going to heaven anyway. But for those of us who have met Jesus, he's going to keep working on us and heaven is going to be populated with people from every single people group. So love of kingdom should impact this conversation. I am so thankful that at this season in my ministry and in my life in the season in our church that it seems every week I'm meeting someone who's immigrated here from some part of the world. Oftentimes a part of the world where it's illegal for them to gather in a church service and illegal for them to have a Bible. Over the last several months we have given many people who've immigrated here from another part of the world their very first Bible, their very first church service, the very first time for them to hear the good news of Jesus. And we rejoice in that love of kingdom, but also love of country. Now love of kingdom should be greater than love of country. And I know some of you like, I don't know if that's true. It's true. Love of kingdom should be greater than love of country. But we should love our country. We should love the country in which God has placed us. I love the country. Listen, I'm a patriotic guy. When the Olympics are on and the USA is on the gold medal stage, I get teary eyed Memorial Day. Teary eyed. I mean, I love the country where God has placed me. I love the kingdom that I'll belong to forever. Because the country won't last forever. And the kingdom of Jesus lasts forever. Man, I just choked on myself. The kingdom of Jesus lasts forever. The country won't last forever. But I do love the country in which God has placed us. And it is wise for leaders to define what it means for someone to be a citizen of a country. And it's wise for leaders to have borders. And it's wise for leaders to enforce the borders that they have. Love of kingdom, love of country. Can we hold both at the same time? And then number three, a third tension. Role of government and role of Christian. The role of government, according to Romans 13, is to restrain evil and to see good prosper. And so we pray for our governing leaders. That's the role of government. We talked earlier in this teaching series that in every way we can, we submit to the laws of the land, that we have a posture of humility towards our governing leaders. But us as Christians are gathering here. We are the church. We are not the governing authority. We are a gathering of Christians. The role of government is to protect its citizens, to enforce laws, to ensure that the citizens adhere to laws. That's the role of government. The role of the Christian is different. The role of the Christian is to love people, to show compassion, to long for people from every tribe, tongue and nation to meet Jesus. You can advocate for supporting the government and at the same time, with a clear conscience, love the stranger and love the immigrant. Because you were a stranger and Jesus loved you. Because you were a stranger and Jesus welcomed you to himself because you were lost and Jesus found you because Jesus poured compassion on you, you then have a heart that becomes compassionate because you're in awe of how Jesus treated you with a clear conscience. Those of us who are Christians, we can hold all of this together and realize that our gathering right here, though we support our government, though we're thankful for our country, that this gathering is not a governmental gathering, that this is a gathering of the people who've been rescued by Jesus. And because we've been rescued by Jesus, we have a heart to care for the vulnerable, because he's always cared for the vulnerable. I know it's hard for some of you not to clap, but I'm really proud of you for not clapping right now, because I just still want us to think and process this. The question, again is why do some Christians, why do some have a different perspective? I have a lot of growing still to do, but I've been walking with Jesus since He saved me right before I turned 18. I've spent more time with Jesus than anybody. I've wrestled with Jesus on all these kinds of things more than I've talked to anybody. I've lived in Miami for eight years, where this was a constant conversation. And I've lived in Southern California for seven and a half years where this has been a constant in the background conversation. Why do people, people who believe the same Bible, worship the same Jesus, sometimes are in the same life group, sometimes at the same congregation? Why do people have different views? I believe it's simple. Some put more weight on one side of the tension than the other. Here's the three tensions. Some will put more weight on the image of God. Others will put more weight on the sinfulness of people. Some will put more weight on the role of government. And they're talking about the role of government. Others are putting more weight on the role of Christianity. What I want to advocate that we do as God's people at Mariners Church is that when we have disagreements, we are kind and compassionate towards one another. And we just talk and listen. And can we be mature and hold all of this at the same time? Can we hold this all together at the same time with a clear conscience? As a follower of Jesus, you are not going against your government to love the immigrant. The role of government is to protect the country. The role of the Christian is to care for the vulnerable. And so at all of our congregations, we're going to give you a way to serve the vulnerable in our cities. Your lead pastor is going to walk you through this, and I'm going to walk Mariners Irvine through this. Now, on your way out today, we have on the patio different outreach teams who are ready to talk to you. And we are. We've designed our outreach teams around the vulnerable in our cities. And so that we have on the patio different ways for you to serve. In a moment, I'm just going to pray a prayer of blessing over you. We're not going to sing together. As we wrap up this service, your response is going to be to get more information. If you want more information, you'll get this card on your way out. And you can volunteer in esl. English as a Second Language can volunteer in our refugee ministry, where we provide care for people who are refugees here, international students. I mean, we're. I mean, UCI is right there. Service translations. We have people who come to our services and we are, we are now providing translations for them on their phone where we. They can hear the message in their. In their native tongue, food pantry and thrift store. We serve thousands of people every single week. And oftentimes those who are vulnerable, not only the immigrant, the impoverished in our cities, they have a tangible need met in their life. As we serve them and they're open to hearing the good news of Jesus. There's foster youth and families, an unborn ministry. The unborn, we believe, are vulnerable and we want to care for the unborn and the family of the unborn. And then we gather. You may not realize this, but we have Mariners hosted here every week. We have worship services, like smaller ones. And they watch the message that I've just done, they watch on video, and we have worship together like 30 different gatherings in homeless shelters and senior living facilities. Just last week, I recorded a video for Ingrid, who became a Christian at one of our senior living facility, our Mariners hosted here. She's 98 years old and she met Jesus. You can clap for that one. You can clap for that one. 98 years old. And so you can serve in one of those, in one of those ministries. So on your way out, we have ushers that will have this for you. And then on the patio, nothing says Valentine's Day night like a message on borders and immigration. Nothing like it. All right, extend your hands, please, and let me pray a prayer of blessing over you as we go. Jesus, I pray you'd bless your sons and daughters this week, that you would remind them that you are gentle and approachable and that you love them. Cause your face to shine on them. I pray they will experience your mercy and your joy this new week. In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, Amen. Go in peace. Have a great week.