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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. Good morning, church. How y' all doing today? I am so fired up to be here. I've got to tell you. As I was driving to church this morning, my heart. My heart was leaping in anticipation of what the Lord is gonna do. I love everything I do, but nothing as much as being with my home church. So looking at all especially, I have to be honest, I think that the 10 o' clock service is the most spiritual of all services at Mariners. There's just a special anointing here. And you've all come before the World cup for a reason, haven't you? Not that I'm just gonna kind of go there. Is there anyone going for Argentina at all in this service? Anyone going for Spain? Anyone couldn't care less. I could tell I'm in America. I have to tell you, when I. When I moved to America, it was so funny because obviously I was raised in Australia. I'm Greek, and with a 21. We have offices all around the world. So I was kind of. I was raised on the World cup and sold. I really didn't know much about American football or baseball, but I remember when I moved here, someone took me, like, to what they called an American baseball World Series game. And you're all getting a bit nervous. And it was fascinating because I kept waiting for the world and it was like, okay, where is the world? And then I discovered that in America, the World Series starts in Seattle, goes across to New York, down to Miami, and finishes in la. And that is the World Series. So just as part of the teaching team here, that is part of the world, it's nice to have a World cup in America and love me or hate me, I am going for Argentina. So we'll see how I know. I know it's in there. I love them with a passion, but you didn't come to hear about that. I have the awesome privilege. I have loved the last seven weeks on this series. Even though I'm traveling a lot, I'm part of our online community, because wherever I am in the world, I'm logged on. And so I have loved the last seven weeks, and I get to wrap it up today. I love the whole Pentateuch. I love the book of numbers. Pastor Eric and the team have taught us so powerfully. And basically, today I'm wrapping us up with the very last section of numbers. Numbers chapter 26 to numbers, chapter 36. We'll be finished by the World cup next round, not this one. And so we're about to do 10 chapters in the next 30 minutes. But I think you're in for the time of your life. And one of the greatest surprises of your life. This book is so powerful. I Obviously, you could tell I'm from Australia. And this is how King Charles wishes he could speak English. And what they did was they put us in convict ships, you know, a couple of hundred years ago, sent us down to Australia, and we refined the English language. And you guys, you threw the tea out in Boston, and this is what you've done to the English language. But I say that to go. A few years ago, my niece, My younger brother Andrew, he has a daughter, Ava. And, you know, a few years ago, when they were filming Thor in Australia, and Chris Hemsworth, obviously the Australian A lister, was playing Thor in that movie. And my niece, who did a whole lot of different little short films in Australia and commercials right from before she was in elementary school, well, she got cast as the young Natalie Portman. She was the young girl, Jane, in the Thor movie. And so she was pumped because for her career, obviously, this was a big deal. She's getting to be alongside an A lister. And you kind of know, it's unofficial. It's not, like, official, but there's the kind of A Listers in Hollywood. And these are the people that you just know by name. And normally, if there's an A lister in a film, you know, this is gonna do really well at the box office. And they're household names pretty much wherever you go, anywhere in the world. I mean, you know, there's Tom Cruise, there's Meryl Streep, there's Denzel Washington. You know, I mean, after three, everyone name one of the A listers. One, two, three. We're gonna try that again because, you know, so after three, I want you to just. Whoever you think is an A lister. One, two, three. Right, exactly. That person. That's what I'm saying is there's. They're just like. They're there. We know them. They're household names. They're those kind of B listers. They're famous in the industry, but they're not necessarily a household name, but they're famous in the industry. Then there's kind of C listers. That's where you kind of go, I've seen that face before. I know them. They've been in. But you don't really know their name. Then there's the D Listers, which is like everyone else that you don't know, that's who's out there, and that's how it goes. And the reason I'm telling you that is because when it comes to the Bible, and particularly when we're teaching, you know, it's unofficial, of course, nobody's ever gonna say it because every word of God in the scripture is inspired. Everyone that's mentioned is, before the sight of God, an A Lister. But here on Earth, we kind of have the A Listers. We have our unofficial ranking of Bible characters. And the A listers are. These are kind of the people that have got books named after them. They're like the ones that we know and they have made the big one. They're Ezekiel and Jeremiah and Esther and Peter and John and Luke, and they're people that have written 2/3 of the New Testament, like, you know, Paul the Apostle Paul. They're like the A listers or the Hebrews 11 hall of Faith, man. They're the ones we talk about Abraham and Noah and Moses and Sarah and Barak and. I mean, these are the A listers. Now, we don't say it out loud, but if you've been following the Lord for 20, 30, you've been listening to sermons on Sunday for 30 or 40 years, in the back of your mind, there's kind of like the A Listers. The reason I'm saying that is because today I'm going to talk about who you might consider a D lister, because I guarantee you, you have never heard of them. But I'm believing that after today's message, they're going to move up to the A list. Because the five chicks I'm going to talk about this morning actually take up more biblical real estate than almost in terms of the Bible. There are very few people that are mentioned as many times as these five chicks. But I guarantee you most of you have never even heard of these five chicks, because when it got to these chapters in your Bible reading plan, you just skipped it. So now you're going to stand before the Lord one day and you're going to say, I now know these five chicks and their father. That's what's going to happen after today. With that, we're going to go to numbers 27, 1, 11. This is the word of the Lord. It says the daughters of Zelophehad. I'll just stop there for a moment. Who already has never heard of Zelophehad in the Bible. So I said, there's like The A Listers. And then there's Zeli. Z. We're just going to call him Z. Today there's jz. Now there's the Bible. Z. Okay. The daughters of Zelophehad. You know how many weeks I had to practice in front of the mirror to say that? Right there. Zelophehad was the son of Hepher, son of Gilead, son of Makir, son of Manasseh, from the clans of Manasseh, the son of Joseph. These were the names of his daughters. Mala, Noah, Hogla. I don't know if any woman's pregnant in the room today. And you're looking for girl names. Hogla. Right there. Kay was just wanting another daughter for Hogla, Milka and Tirzah. They stood before Moses, the priest Eleazar, the leaders, and the entire community at the entrance of the tent of meeting and said, our father died in the wilderness. But he was not among Korah's followers who gathered together against the Lord. Instead, he died because of his own sin and he had no sons. Why should the name of our father be taken away from his clan since he had no sons? Give us property among our father's brothers. Moses brought their case before the Lord, and the Lord answered him. What Zelophehad's daughters say is correct. You are to give them hereditary property among their father's brothers and transfer their father's inheritance to them. Tell the Israelites, when a man dies without having a son, transfer his inheritance to his daughter. If he has no daughter, give his inheritance to his brothers. If he has no brothers, give his inheritance to his father's brothers. If his father has no brothers, give his inheritance to the nearest relative of his clan, and he will take possession of it. This is to be a statutory ordinance for the Israelites, as the Lord commanded Moses. So here what we're seeing is Torah law, inheritance laws. And obviously at this time, in ancient Near Eastern culture, it was a patriarchal society. And so only sons would inherit property or anything. And so the eldest son would inherit a double portion. And then what you would have is each son after that would. Would get an equal single portion of the inheritance. Daughters didn't receive anything, and they, when they got married, received a dowry, and then, you know, they lived off their husband's inheritance. That might sound a little bit weird to our 2026. Irvine is. But I have to tell you that this is not that abnormal. I'm 60, so I grew up in a Greek culture that had kind of a dowry culture, you know, I mean, Nick And I have been married for 30 years. But before Nick, when I was betrothed as a teenager, you know, the guy came over like, you know, two cows, three cucumbers and a tomato, and said, I'll give you this for your daughter. You know, it's just kind of like part of what happened in that dowry sort of system. So this is ancient Near Eastern culture. It's a patriarchal culture. It's just the way that things were. And so here you've got inheritance laws being stated. I mean, obviously we're going through the list. This is what happens if a man has no sons, give the inheritance to someone else outside of the family. And one of the members of our church, Matt, was here last night. He's a lawyer. And as I was talking this, he sent me last night the California inheritance laws. I mean, I just want you to see how inspired people are by the word of Go. Obviously, this sort of stuff flicks your switch because he's like, look at the similarities between numbers 27 and the California inheritance laws. I'm like, matt, you need to get a life. But anyway, so they are there. And in all of that, basically, it's saying it goes right down the list. And if you have no sort of living relative, second cousin, you know, third cousin removed, basically, if you looked in someone's direction, give them the land. Like, that's the way that it goes. That's how it is here in California. So get your will sorted anyway. And in the midst of all of that, there's these five chicks that are petitioning Moses. But this is not the first place these five chicks turn up. What you have to see is in numbers 26, which is the beginning of the last section, numbers 26 to 36. Theologians call it an inclusio. Basically, it's just the bookend of this, of this whole book of the Bible and everything in between. It makes it make sense. So the daughters of Zelophehad started and finish it. So it's very, very significant. We see in numbers 26, 1 2. After the plague, the Lord said to Moses and Eleazar, son of Aaron the priest, take a census of the entire Israelite community by their ancestral families of those 20 years old or more who could serve in Israel's army. So right at the beginning of the last section, the last section of numbers starts with a census. Remember when Pastor Eric started us in this series, the Book of Numbers started with a census. That's why it's called Numbers. We numbered the people. And so here now we have A second census. And you go, why do I need another one? We've just sort of lived through one. And this has been a really hard Bible reading plan for the week. And now I've got to start another census. Well, that's because everyone that came out, the children of Israel, that came out of slavery, out of Egypt, they had died in the wilderness. Everyone except for Moses, Joshua and Caleb, everybody else died. And so now another generation had arisen in the, in the wilderness and they were going to go in and possess the promised land. And we're going to get to those books of the Bible and they were going to go into the promised land. So now the Lord's saying, okay, we need another census. We need to count again. Who have we got and how you count it again. We're in a patriarchal ancient Near Eastern culture. We're gonna count the men and we want the guys that are over 20 that could be conscripted for the army. We wanna know who can go to war for us. Very, very important, especially in these times. So the whole Of Numbers Chapter 26 is a list of men's names. I'm gonna spare you that today, but I am gonna get to verse 33. It's you go home. I know you're all dying to go home and read every name that's in numbers 26. We're going to test you on it next week. And so in verse 33 it says, Zelophehad son of Hepher had no sons, only daughters. The names of Zelophehad's daughters were Mala, Noah, Hogla, Milkah, and Tirzah. So what I'm trying to point out here is that in this entire chapter that only has the names of males 20 years and over that could be conscripted for war, God saw a fit that we include five chicks names in an ancient Near Eastern patriarchal culture. This is highly unusual. These women are so important. In fact, they are in Scripture. Their names are mentioned four times and they're alluded to five times. You don't see that kind of real estate almost anywhere. Given to five chicks that you've never heard of, five chicks you've never heard of, and yet they're named consistently in scripture. And then we see in chapter 27 that these chicks actually go and approach boldly. The tent of meeting. I mean, this is the holy place. As if women would ever turn up there. There is Moses, there is Eleazar the priest, there are the leaders, and there is the entire community. And somehow there was some conviction in These women that made them understand, hang on a minute. This is not fair. Because if we don't get our rightful inheritance as daughters of our father, then what will happen down the track? There is the possibility that this inheritance is going to go to someone outside of the clan, outside of the tribe of Manasseh. And it's not only going to leave our direct family line, but it could end up leaving our whole. Now, nobody's wanting to mess with God's allotments. God allotted a certain portion of land to each tribe. You don't want to touch what God's allotted. And they're thinking not just about themselves, but they're thinking generationally, they're thinking covenantally, they're thinking about the future. So somehow they overcame the obvious fear that you would feel as a woman in this culture to go before the tent of meeting and to approach Moses and to say to him, hang on a minute. This is not fair. Why are we not getting. With five daughters, if we don't get our inheritance, then this is all over. Not just for us, but potentially even for our tribe. We're going to lose a certain amount of money. And they must have been so persuasive. Church. Never before is there any record of anyone doing this, let alone a woman, contending for an inheritance that Moses actually went to God. That's how convincing they were. Because they were also smart in the way that they approached it. They didn't come in with a sense of arrogance or a sense of entitlement. They actually started to kind of defend their father and say, hang on a minute. Our father died in the wilderness. But he was not among Korah's followers. Remember Pastor Eric talked about the rebellion of Korah. And she wanted to. The girls wanted to say, hey, he was not part of that rebellion. He was a faithful man. He died in the wilderness of his own sin, just like everybody else that came out of Egypt. But he was not part of that disobedient rebellious group that were part of Korah's rebellion. So they're ascertaining that, and then they're saying, it's not fair. Because if the inheritance doesn't stay in our family line, his name will be written off the register. His name will be removed from the clan. It will be erased from history. And that is not fair, because he was a good man. And it's so interesting to me that they must have been persuasive. Cause they go to Moses, and then we'll see. Moses says to Moses, goes. And he asks God, and in verse 7. This is God's response. He said to Moses what Zelophehad's daughters say is correct. Now, you know, I often ask Nick to go to God because I just think that he might hear one day what Christine says. Anyway, so what Salava. If you contend and say, you know, go to God with this. Now why is this an important line, Church? Because if God's saying this is correct, what that implies is that this was available. It's just that nobody had ever contended for it, nobody had ever gone to appeal. This literally is the point where history is made. Verse 7 and 8. Because Jewish Torah laws were changed in order to make provision for women to receive the inheritance. Because of this moment in history, this isn't just a nice little Bible fairy tale. This actually had practical feet on the ground implications for Jewish law. But the thing is that God said what they said is right. See, they came boldly and they made an appeal and they contended for something. Well, if you understood the fullness of the law, it never said anywhere, don't give it to your daughter. It did say give it to the son, and if there's no son. But they made an appeal and God said, you know what, it's right. Let me try to give an example of a recent case in 821. When we started 821 in Greece and in other regions of the world, you know, there was no way that you could take a video testimony from a victim and present it in court against a trafficker so that you could prosecute a trafficker. There were just so many complications with that. But the fact is, especially for children, it is so traumatic because sometimes they would have to give testimony eight, nine, ten times. And you've got a traumatized child being re. Traumatized and re traumatized having to give testimony or a woman that's in just, it's just so horrific, the trauma that goes with that. And so we have been contending, we have been contending for the implementation of the first full provision of the law that actually would allow this. But because nobody had fought for it and it was just too much hard work, they had never allowed a video, you know, confession and a video testimony to be put in court as a, you know, in order to be used for evidence. And so we have been fighting this. I can't even tell you for how long in so many different countries like, like the, the daughters of Zelophe had. We're like, this is unjust. This is not right. This has got to be. Well, you know, A month ago, for the first time in the history of Greece. Finally, we've been there for 19 years. Finally they allowed because there was the. Obviously. And I'm sure if there's law enforcement in the room, you know, this, that. And you'd want me to make sure that I'm saying this. You have to be able to take that testimony and make sure it's recorded and all the checks and balances are in place so that this could be held up in court. And you need to have the right equipment in the court to be able to show it, show that nothing's been tampered with and it's all done right. But all of the planets aligned and this happened. And incidentally, we put the trafficker away for 20 years. But then what that does is it means that you no longer have to re traumatize a victim constantly. And this can now. So it has set a precedent that is going to impact victim impact testimonies for the future. Well, this is what these girls did. They were contending saying, this is not fair. And God said, you know what, you're right. You're right. I'm glad someone bothered to ask, and what am I doing with that church? James, let me give you a bit of New Testament for this. James says, you have not. Why? Because you ask not. And so many of us are living so far beneath the inheritance that God has for us in his word, because we simply don't ask. We just simply think God is too busy running the universe in order to take any of our prayers or petitions really seriously. I mean, he's got war to contend with, he's got injustice to contend with. Why would God care about my marriage? Why would God care about my kids? Why would God care about my job? Why would God care about my heart? But I want you to know that the writer to the Hebrews, in chapter 4, verse 16, he says, Therefore, let us approach the throne of grace with what boldness? So that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need. See, you and I, we are part of a better covenant, a new covenant where because of the redemptive work of Jesus Christ on the cross, who shed his blood for our sin, we can boldly enter into the throne room of God. We can boldly enter into the throne room of God and we can pray according to the will of God in the name of Jesus. And I wonder how many of you are living so far beneath the promise of God because you won't enter boldly. Romans 8:17 says that we are heirs of God and coheirs with Christ. We're talking about the daughters of Zelophehad and they were talking about physical land. You and I have an eternal inheritance in Christ Jesus. Second Corinthians, chapter one. If that doesn't get you excited on a Sunday morning, I can't help you. Second Corinthians, chapter one, verse 20 says, Every one of God's promises is yes in him. Therefore through him we also say amen to the glory of God. Every one of the promises of God. What has God promised us in the New Covenant Church? Peace. You think that's not something we need in 2026? He himself is our peace. We make petition to God. The peace of God that surpasses all understanding can be our portion in this hour. When have you boldly come into the throne room and contended for peace? Peace in your home, peace in your soul, peace in your mind. The joy of the Lord is our strength in a world that is full of such angst and pain and heartache. And you go online for five second and you just realize the whole earth has lost its ever loving mind. And so you're like, I need some joy. I need some joy and I don't need to just find it in a pill or in a bottle. The joy of the Lord is my strength. That's my inheritance as a daughter of the King. God's provision, God's promise, God's purpose, God's protection. Are we contending? Let me tell you what the issue on the earth is. Church. Ultimately, so many of us, we think it's either a political issue or a sociological issue or a moral issue or an environmental issue. And we just look at the craziness of the world. But you know what crisis we're actually having on the earth? We're actually having a faith crisis. We've got too many unbelieving believers. We need some believing believers that believe that God is who he says he is and that God can do what he says he can do, and that the the sons and daughters of God can enter boldly into the throne room. And we live so far beneath the promise of God because we're so full. So many of us are so full of shame and guilt and condemnation. Some of you, like Chris, what do you mean enter boldly? You don't know what I was doing last night. You don't know what I was doing last week. And you're exactly right. I have no clue what you were doing, nor do I need to know. What I do know is that Jesus Christ shed his blood at Calvary 2,000 years ago, was buried and rose again. And my Bible says that if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. It's not based on what we've done, it's based on what he did. The reason we can enter boldly is because of Jesus. And it's in the name of Jesus, and it's because Jesus shed his blood. It's not us on our best day are not good enough to enter boldly into the throne of God. We can never be good enough this side of eternity. And so I pray that after today, the daughters of Zelophehad inspire us to walk boldly into the throne room of God and to make petition for those things that are in the scripture that are our inheritance in Christ Jesus. You don't need to fear. I come from a religious tradition where, you know, I was really never encouraged to come into the throne room of God. I was just clouded in shame and guilt and condemnation. I thought, God's this big guy in the sky with a stick and he's just too angry. And he's. He's just, he doesn't want me to go in there. He's. He's busy running the universe. But we're sons and daughters of the king of kings. You know, I've got two daughters and I have never seen Catherine or Sophia from the time they were born. They were never like, you know, covering themselves and crawling down the hallway and had a big stick knocking on the door from a distance, saying, father ethnicith, I beseech a theith, may I enter thy presence a thick in old King James Englishth, of courseth they were never. Listen. My daughter is studying comparative literature in Paris. And when she wants something from her dad and wants to talk to her dad, I don't think ever once in the three years she's been there she's ever checked to see what time it might be in North America at that time. When she's calling Nick, I'm telling, sitting there in the front row, he picks up the phone at 3 o'. Clock. She doesn't care. She's like, hi, dad, but can I just say to you, I think that's exactly how God is when it comes to the throne of grace. He's like, honey, just. I'm here to pick up the phone. Hi, dad, I'm here. He's longing, longing for us to go boldly into his throne room. We have a high Priest making intercession for us day and night. Don't run from him, run to him. The daughters of Zelophehad showed us that by contending and appealing, they shifted something that impacted not just their generation, but our generation. In Numbers, chapter 36, there in the end, it says in verse 6, this is what the Lord has commanded concerning Zelophehad's daughters. They may marry anyone they like, provided they marry within a clan of their ancestral tribe. No inheritance belonging to the Israelites is to transfer from tribe to tribe, because each of the Israelites is to retain the inheritance of his ancestral. Any daughter who possesses an inheritance from an Israelite tribe must marry someone from the clan of her ancestral tribe, so that each of the Israelites will possess the inheritance of his fathers. So essentially, what it's saying is it's not just about the girls, but we care about the whole community as well. And God cares about us individually and our whole communities. And so not only was the law implemented it in Numbers 27, Verses 7 and 8, which is like, okay, if a father dies with no sons, give the inheritance to the daughters, then there's a caveat on that as well. In numbers 36, it just sums up the book beautifully. Just locks it all up to say, but make sure that you're marrying within your clan so that we're not messing with God's allotment, so that in the greater community, the land will stay there. And that's not just where it is. Here we are sitting in Irvine in 2026, and you go, okay, so what has this ancient text, this book that we have just spent eight weeks of our life studying? What has that got to do with us sitting here in Southern California in July 2026? I'll tell you, it's got a whole lot to do with that. In 1900, in. Before the Judiciary Committee, the Senate Judiciary Committee, there was a woman who was a suffragette. At that time in 1900, the women still did not have the vote here in North America. And so the women's suffragette, obviously were advocating for the women's right to vote. For 30 years, they had been petitioning the government, appealing about a woman's right to vote. And so you have to know that in your own. I'm sure all of you know this from history if you didn't fall asleep. But. But in your own courts here in America, this text is what helped women get the vote in 1900. I'm gonna read you a portion of Elizabeth Cady Stanton's statement before the Judiciary Committee. And this is what she stood. What was said before the committee. It's a very long piece. I've just cut a portion of it out so that you can see how the text that we're talking about this morning in church actually had a radical impact on your own voting request. She writes. Honorable gentlemen, in reading the speeches made in Congress, I noticed frequent references made to biblical texts and to what the great creator of the universe commands. If the members of this committee believe in an overruling providence and his revealed will, I would refer them to what the Lord said through Moses when the five daughters of Zelophehad appeared before the Jewish Congress in their capital. The sacred historian in the 27th chapter of Numbers tells us that these ladies were remarkably well developed specimens of womanhood. I'm very amused. That would not cut it in 2026, but this is 1900. Okay. And very eloquent in their appeals for their civil rights. They made such an impression on Moses that he immediately retired alone and laid their case before the Lord, who said, the daughters of Zelophehad speak right. Thou shalt surely give them possession of their inheritance. She goes on to say, after this, the daughters of Zelophehad approached Moses once and made their appeal. And Moses hearing was so fine tuned to the voice of God that God said to him, the daughters of Zelophe had arrived, so let's give them their inheritance. And she said, we have been petitioning the judiciary committee for 30 years, so perhaps you should check your hearing. And you need to go before the Lord again. And with that, then he will tell you that women in America should be allowed to vote. And that's where we go. And that's where it all happened, because of the daughters of Zelopheats. So, church, my prayer is that you and I will have the confidence to boldly step before the throne of God. Read the word of God, see what the promises of God are. Remember that all the promises of God are in Christ Jesus. Yes, and amen. So you don't have to cower into the presence of God. You can boldly go into the throne room. And some of you, it's time to contend again. Contend for your family, contend for your marriages, contend for your business, contend for your future. And know that the throne room is open and your God is waiting. You know, today we just heard about how the daughters of Salafa had. How they approached that tent of meeting with a boldness that they actually had no legal right to. But you and I, because of the blood covenants that we have in Jesus Christ. And because of the blood that he shed on the cross, the writer to the Hebrew says we can enter boldly into a far better throne, the throne room of grace. That's where you and I can enter today. And it's only possible because of what Jesus did for us. It's because he died. He died for each and every one of all of our sins, past, present, and future. He alone is the reason that we can go before the throne of God and that we can take communion together in his name. So this morning, would you pick up your elements? And if you don't have any, we've got ushers going up and down the aisle. Please raise your hand, and they will gladly bring you some elements. Yep, there's some hands up around the room. You could pass one in CHURCH on the night Jesus was betrayed by his disciples, he took this bread and said, this is my body which has been given for you. And on the cross, Jesus took the punishment. He bore in his body the full weight of the punishment that really should have been poured out on you and me. He was beaten, he was bruised, he was scarred. But the scripture says by his stripes, you and I, we. We are healed. And Jesus led his disciples in the taking of the bread. And he said, do this in remembrance of me. And this morning, Church, we do this in remembrance of Jesus. Take and eat. Thank you, Lord. Thank you, Lord. He then gave thanks and offered them the cup. And he said, this is my blood which seals the covenant between God and his people. And it's poured out to forgive the sins of many. And because Jesus shed his blood, you and I have the forgiveness of sins. His was the perfect sacrifice, now and forever. So we take this cup and we drink this morning, and we do it in remembrance of Jesus. Thank you, Lord. Church the most fitting response the disciples had when they partook of the elements, when they. When they took communion with Jesus, was that they. They started to sing, they started to worship. And I've got to say, the older I get, the longer I walk with Jesus. There is no better response. I mean, how else do you say thank you to a God who died on the cross for our sins so that we can enter boldly into the throne of grace? How else? So, Church, why don't we stand this morning together and worship King Jesus together as we give thanks? 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. Thanks for tuning in to the Mariners Weekend Message Podcast to support the ministry of Mariners Church. You can click the link in the show notes or download the Mariners app at your favorite app store. If you've been navigating God's wisdom with us through this year's annual read and would like to hear personal reflections from pastors in your community, check out the Gospel Every Day podcast. Imagine feeding your heart, mind and soul with the kind of practical wisdom that will change your life. If you haven't picked up the annual read yet, visit MarinersChurch.org or download the Mariners app for more information on where to find it. Sam.