Transcription
[Music] Well, if you have your Bibles, turn with me to Acts chapter 4 and verse 32. Acts chapter 4 and verse 32. We're going to look again at part of the passage we looked at last week, and I want to talk to you today about something that I think is so absolutely incredible and will make such a difference. I want to talk to you about the power of encouragement. The power of encouragement.
The dictionary defines encouragement this way: the action of giving someone support, confidence, or hope. And how desperately people need that today. We saw through the COVID pandemic, and as the pandemic begins to wind down, people still need confidence. People still need hope. People still need encouragement. What happens when you and I encourage people? We literally can shift their perspective. We can literally change how they look at things. People that have given up can be given the hope to get up. And if there's one place and one people that ought to be known as a place that encourages people more than any, any other place, it should be the church, and it should be Christians. In fact, a part of the reason why we're here this morning, we're here to worship God, but we're also here to encourage one another.
The writer of Hebrews says this: "Let us think of ways to motivate one another." So right now, you've got an assignment. How are you going to motivate that person next to you? It might be your mate, or it might be somebody on the other side you don't even know. How are you going to motivate them? What are you going to say to encourage them? "And let us not neglect our meeting together as some people do, but encourage one another." Tell somebody, "I'll be looking for you Wednesday night. I can't wait to see what God's going to do in the church next week. It's going to be awesome. Be sure to be back." That's encouragement.
And with that in mind, as we look at Acts chapter 4, we're going to be looking at a man by the name of Barnabas. His real name was Joseph, but he was so known as an encourager that they changed his name to Barnabas, which means son of encouragement. And the reason why I want to take time today to talk about Barnabas is because outside of Peter and outside of Paul, Barnabas is the most mentioned person in the book of Acts. The third most mentioned person is Barnabas. And what is it that makes him such a key player in an early church where God is moving? He's a person who encourages people. I mean, you want to be a player in the church? Be an encourager. You want to make a difference in what God is doing in this place? Speak encouraging words. Be a person who is an encourager.
As we look at Barnabas, I want to give you four principles on the power of encouragement.
Number one: Encouragement is something that God does. When you go to 2 Corinthians chapter 1 and verse 3, that verse says, "Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort." This word "comfort" is the word *paraklesis* in the Greek. The Holy Spirit, Jesus called him the Comforter, the Paraclete, but it could all easily be translated "the encourager." The Holy Spirit is the encourager. He encourages you and I. He empowers us and encourages us to step out. He's the one who is speaking to you, telling you, "Hey, go pray for this person." Debbie had somebody who told her this story, it was really very interesting. They were in a place, they saw a guy, a family there. She and her husband, she said, she said, "I feel like I'm supposed to, we're supposed to go pray for him." They chickened out. They didn't know what he'd need. Found out later, they went. Those people went to James River. He had a shoulder and needed to be prayed for. Listen, you know what? You never know what God is. You know, you've got to trust that the Spirit's speaking to you because the Spirit, when he speaks, when we get back, say we're going to see, he always says, "Go. Go encourage. Go pray. Go, go engage somebody. Go tell somebody about the Lord." The Holy Spirit is the encourager. Uh, even the word "preaching" in 1 Timothy is that word *paraklesis*. Preaching is designed to encourage you. So, I'm preaching an encouraging sermon. Well, 2 Corinthians chapter 1, verse 3, you could read it this way: "Praise be the begotten Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of encouragement." God is the Father of encouragement. Hasn't He encouraged you? Doesn't He? And listen, if you're God, and your view of God is not a God who encourages, you've got the wrong God. I mean, our God is a God of encouragement who encourages us in all of our troubles. "You can make it." He gives you a word. He speaks to your heart. He lets you sense His presence. He's encouraging you so that we can encourage those in any trouble with the encouragement we ourselves have received from God. Encouragement is so powerful, it can make such a difference in a person's life that God does it. It's what He does. He does it all the time. He's the God of encouragement.
In Acts chapter 9 and verse 31, "Then the church throughout Judea, Galilee and Samaria enjoyed a time of peace. It was strengthened and, watching and encouraged by the Holy Spirit, it grew in numbers, living in the fear of the Lord." Listen, you know what? In a time where God is moving, as we're studying the early church, as we're learning about the things that God blesses and the church God blesses and how to function in a move of God, isn't it interesting that encouragement figures prominently in that? God wants everybody in this room to be an encourager. God wants you to encourage others, and others will encourage you, and He'll encourage all of us. And the Holy Spirit encourages them. And when they're encouraged by the Holy Spirit, the church grows, living in the fear of the Lord. I mean, they're just living in an awe of God, a reverence of God, a breathless wonder of all that God is doing.
[Music]
Number two: Encouragement is expressed through generosity. Now, when we think about generosity, invariably people go right to money. And I'm not saying that that's not part of it. I would just suggest that's not all of it. When I think of the generosity of encouragement, I think of it relative to three different areas. When a person is an encourager, they are first of all generous in their thoughts and their words. They say the good, they say the kind words, they say the encouraging things. They say words that build others up instead of tearing people down. They focus not on what's wrong with a person, but what's good about a person. They're encouraging.
Ephesians chapter 4, verse 29 says, "Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouth, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen." What is he talking about there? He's talking about encouragement. Yes. Yeah, we're not tearing people down, we're building others up according to their needs. So that's what an encourager does. And then people that hear you encouraging people, they're encouraged to be an encourager as well, right? Encouragement, generosity. When a person is an encourager, they are very generous with their words. They say nice things. Sometimes in their desire to encourage you, they are so generous in their words that they make you sound better than you really are. But that's all right. You know, some have you ever met some people and they feel like, you know, the Australians call it the "tall poppy" syndrome, where, uh, in Australia, I mean, Australians will tell you this, that in Australia, culturally, if somebody's flower starts to grow up a little high, they want to whack it off. It's the tall poppy syndrome. They want to cut people down to size. You know, a generous person isn't worried about somebody else getting a big head. A generous person is saying, "Listen, you know what? Life takes care of a lot. People get beat up all the time. I'm not going to be the one that's going to do that. I'm going to be the one who's not going to beat up people. I'm going to be the one who's going to build up people. I'm not going to be the one who's going to tear people down. I'm going to be the one who's going to build them up so that they can believe God for big things and can have the confidence to go forward in life."
Well, when a person, number two, when a person is an encourager, they're generous with their finances. Now, this is the story of Barnabas. And next week, you know, this is a very encouraging word, and this is a very happy word. And next week, it's going to be a little more serious because we're going to learn about Ananias and Sapphira. And the scripture juxtaposes generous Barnabas selling land and giving it to the church with Satan-inspired Ananias and Sapphira in the early church. Watch what happens here.
Acts chapter 4, verse 36: "Joseph, a Levite from Cyprus, whom the apostles called Barnabas (which means son of encouragement), I mean, can you imagine being the kind of person who is so known for encouraging people that you actually have a nickname given to you because of that? He sold a field he owned and brought the money and put it at the apostles' feet." You say, "Why did he do that?" Well, in verse 32, "All the believers were one in heart and mind. No one claimed that any of his possessions was his own, but they shared everything they had." Now, this is not suggesting a socialistic, communistic type of arrangement in the early church. We know people, the church met in homes. Even in Acts 12, they're praying in a home. So we know people have private property. What we're talking about is people at times liquidated their assets or gave of their assets for the purpose of helping others out of compassion. Just like you did for Freedom City Church, that would be a classic example. "For there were no needy persons among them. For from time to time those who owned land or houses sold them, brought the money from the sales and put it at the apostles' feet, and it was distributed to anyone as he had need." Here's Barnabas. He knows people are struggling. He knows that there are needs. And so he said, "You know what? I've got a piece of land, and I, I want that land. I want, I want the value of that land to be invested in people, to helping their need." He was encouraging people. Sometimes that's the way it plays out. So it could be something like what he did. But more generally, I think it, it works like it works like this.
So Debbie, in her book, "She Prays," which incidentally, Target has just picked that up and told her they're going to carry it in almost 900 stores, so two years after publication, that's pretty, pretty crazy. We're so excited about that because just because of what that will do in calling people to pray. I mean, imagine. But in that book, she tells the story of being at Price Cutter. And as she was at Price Cutter, she was grabbing some things, and there was a lady she saw, uh, that had had her daughter with her, had a plastic container with cupcakes in it. And Debbie instantly, she felt like the Lord said, "Go pay for a cupcake." So she just slid in front of her and quick put her credit card in there and then left. She didn't, she didn't have a lot of interaction with her. The lady knew who Debbie was and emailed her story and said, "Listen, we've been going through a really tough time. It was my daughter's birthday at school, and we were supposed to bring cupcakes. We had no money at all. I didn't have the heart to tell my daughter." So I was in the car, and I was praying, "Lord, um, somehow would you work a miracle to pay for these cupcakes that I'm going to go in there and get?" And she said, "And then all of a sudden, you jumped in front of me and you paid for the cupcakes and you left." And I just wanted you to know how much that meant. And then through that turn of events, the Lord began to work in their heart in a powerful way. That's the way encouragement works.
Now, let me, let me say this to you: When the Lord speaks to you, do it. [Applause] When the Lord speaks, do it. You say, "Well, what if I'm wrong?" You can figure that out later because by and large, you're not going to be wrong. You have windows of opportunity, and if you don't respond, that's gone. If you want to hear the voice of God, you've got to cultivate the habit of obeying the voice of God because if you don't listen to God, if you don't respond, then God's going to say, "Why should I talk? They don't listen." On the other hand, when God speaks, and the more you obey the voice and the prompting of the Lord, the more you will hear His voice and sense His prompting. I'm telling you, this is how it works, and God will use you. I believe this week the word of God energized in your heart is going to put you in situations where God is going to prompt you to encourage people. And it could be with generous words. It could be with generous cupcake purchases. It could be, it could be with all kinds of things. God wants to do in your life.
Third, one of the ways that that generous people function is they give their time. They take time for people. They may be very busy, but they're generous with their time. When you go to Acts chapter 9, you have the story of a man named Saul. Now, later in the New Testament, he's going to be called, or in the book of Acts, he's going to be called Paul. You say, "What happens is that because he gets saved?" Really, what it amounts to is this: Saul is the Hebrew name, Paul is the Greek name for for Saul. So Paul and Saul. So Paul is the Greek, Saul is the Hebrew. And at some point, it will change over. About Acts 13, it changes over. But here is Saul, and he was very zealous. He's persecuting the church. He is one of the most notorious sinners of any age anywhere. You say, "How do you know that?" Because he himself says, "I am the worst of sinners, but Christ died for me." And the Holy Spirit lets that statement stand. The Holy Spirit doesn't say, "Now, Paul, you know, come on, you're having a bad day. You don't have good self-esteem." No, the Holy Spirit says, "Yeah, you're right. You were pretty bad, but Christ died for him."
So here he was, and he had been arresting Christians and then tortured them to try to get them to blaspheme, and he'd have them put to death. And when Stephen was giving this great sermon, and and they went to stone him, to throw rocks at his head until they crushed his head and crushed the life out of him, Paul's sitting there holding the coat, saying, "Right on. I like this." He's a bad guy. He's going to Damascus, northeast of Jerusalem, to arrest Christians. And on the way, the Lord Jesus appears to him and blinds him. He has an encounter with Christ. Through that encounter, he's saved. He's filled with the Spirit. Ananias, we saw it last week, places his hands on him, he receives his sight, and now Paul is on fire. He is preaching the gospel.
In Acts chapter 9, verse 26, "When he, Saul, came to Jerusalem, he tried to join the apostles, but they were all afraid of him, not believing that he really was a disciple." I mean, he's saying, "Hey, I'd like to come to the synagogue." And they're like, "Are you crazy?" I mean, it would be like thinking that somebody like Adolf Hitler wanted to be in a synagogue. And Paul, Paul can't get in. They don't want anything to do with him. They've heard about him. They've heard the stories. They're not sure he's for real. But Barnabas took him and brought him to the apostles. The apostles. Isn't that great? I mean, there he is. Saul's feeling rejected, discouraged. And Barnabas sees the need. And again, this is this is the generosity of encouragement. He's generous with his time. He's generous with his connections. He's generous with his friends. He's generous with his reputation. He's not worried about what people will think if he talks to Saul. He takes time for Saul. He shares his friends with Saul.
Look at it in verse 27: "Barnabas took him and brought him to the apostles. And he told them how Saul on his journey had seen the Lord and that the Lord had spoken to him, and how in Damascus he had preached fearlessly in the name of Jesus." How does Barnabas know all of that? Because he took time to find out. He took time to be with the man nobody wanted to be with. Yeah, he took time to hear the story of a person that nobody wanted to know his story. He was generous with his time. You say, "Did it encourage Paul?" It certainly did. Verse 28: "So Paul stayed with them and moved about freely in Jerusalem, speaking boldly in the name of the Lord." Think of it. Because somebody took time to encourage the ministry of the most articulate spokesman the gospel has ever seen was furthered. We don't have any idea what our encouragement's going to do. You don't know. I don't know what God's going to do with that man, with that woman, with that, with that student. You don't know what, what one word said at the right time could do to change a person's life. You may look at your own giftings and think they're no big deal, but if you're an encourager, you're a big deal in the kingdom of God. You may think there's not much. I can't sing, and I can't preach, and I can't lead a, lead a group, but if you can encourage, you can make a big difference in the church. Think of Barnabas. How many books of the Bible did he write? Not one. But because he was an encourager, God used him to touch the life of a man who would write a third of the New Testament and take the gospel to Europe. Listen, when we encourage, things happen in people's lives. We can't begin to imagine. [Applause]
Number three: Encouragement creates unity that leads to the anointing. By that, I mean the powerful working of God in a place. In Acts chapter 11, there's a city by the name of Antioch. People have gone there, they've shared the gospel. Now there's a bunch of new believers, and they're not Jewish, they're Gentile. They need a spiritual foundation, they need education, they need leadership. So guess who the early church calls to go check it out? Barnabas. Look at it.
Acts 11:19: "Now those who had been scattered by the persecution in connection with Stephen traveled as far as Phoenicia, Cyprus and Antioch, telling the message only to Jews. Some of them, however, men from Cyprus and Cyrene, went to Antioch and began to speak to Greeks also, telling them the good news about the Lord Jesus. The Lord's hand was with them, and a great number of people believed and turned to the Lord. News of this reached the ears of the church at Jerusalem, and they sent Barnabas to Antioch. When he arrived and saw the evidence of the grace of God, he was glad and encouraged them all." I mean, he shows up, and they knew what he would do. "We're going to send him because he's going to encourage them." He encouraged them all to remain true to the Lord with all of their hearts. He was a good man, full of the Holy Spirit and faith, and a great number of people were brought to the Lord. Let me just say, you might have a natural ability to encourage, but if you'll, if you'll walk in the fullness of the Holy Spirit, He'll take you to a level you can't begin to imagine.
Then Barnabas went to Tarsus to look for Saul. And when he found him, he brought him to Antioch. For a whole year, Barnabas and Saul met with the church and taught great numbers of people. The disciples were called Christians first at Antioch. That's what encouragement will do. It brings God's presence into a place. Encouragement builds the church. Encouragement changes people's lives. Encouragement reaches the lost. And Barnabas saw they needed teaching, so he went and he found Saul and he brought him to Antioch. And for a whole year, they're teaching and they're encouraging. Verse 26: "The disciples were called Christians first at Antioch." Literally, they were called what? That means "little Christ," "little Jesus." They were so much like Jesus that people called them, "Little Jesus." "There goes that little Jesus. There goes the little Christ." Isn't it interesting that it's in the context of encouragement that the early church started being marked as "little Christ"? What's that say to us? Remember, God is a God of all encouragement. Encouragement's something He does. In some ways, we're never more like Him than when we're encouraging. And they were so filled with encouragement, emulating Barnabas, that now people are saying, "Well, they're just like Jesus. They're just..." And we've heard stories about Jesus. He was an encourager. They began to call them "little Christ." If we want people to see Jesus in us, one of the best ways to do that is be an encourager. Because encouragement creates unity, and when you have unity, you're going to have the anointing of the Holy Spirit, yes, and you're going to have the power of God. And that's why we need it.
Number four: Encouragement can change a person's life. Now, here's the thing everybody needs to understand. You know, our job is to encourage, and then we leave the results up to God, right? Yeah. And we have to be careful that we don't base or evaluate the importance of encouragement by the way people respond because you may, you may encourage somebody, and they'll desert you or quit you. You could encourage somebody, and they might turn on you. You have to leave those kind of things to the Lord and not get caught up rehearsing your hurts or carrying your wounds. You have to say, "Listen, I'm going to keep encouraging people." Because oftentimes, what happens is people that act up or act out things over time come around. That's why we have to keep a tender heart.
That happened to Barnabas. Acts chapter 13, Paul and Barnabas went on a trip. They took a young man with them by the name of John Mark. And John Mark was a cousin of Barnabas. John Mark was timid. John Mark was shy. When they're going into the area, they're going in Galatia and and all of that, uh, you can read in the book of Acts, Paul is is very much persecuted in that area. It's a very difficult area. There's bandits, there's dangers, there's all kinds of things that happen to them. And John Mark, as he watches it, he gets afraid and he decides, "Listen, I'm going home. I'm, I'm not doing this." Person could get killed hanging out with Paul. So how do you think Barnabas feels? He could have felt all that encouragement down the drain. But I think he's encouraged people so much, he kept believing in John Mark.
You get to Acts chapter 15. And in Acts chapter 15, "After some time, Paul said to Barnabas, 'Let's go back and visit each city where we previously preached the word of the Lord and see how the new believers are doing.'" And in those cities, I mean, they'd been run out of town, they'd been beaten, they'd had some really significant things happening. And Paul's like, "I'd like to go back." And Barnabas agreed and wanted to take along John Mark. Always the encourager. Barnabas is like, "Hey, let's give him another chance. Let's bring him along." Because when you're an encourager, you give people a second chance. I mean, God's an encourager. He gives second chances, third chances, fourth chances.
Acts chapter 15, verse 38: "But Paul disagreed strongly, since John Mark had deserted them in Pamphylia and had not continued with them in their work." So what you have is you have a disagreement here. Barnabas, ever the encourager, is saying, "Listen, come on, let's give him another chance because I think there's something in him. I see." You see, when you're an encourager, and I think I think many times what happens is there is prophetic insight in a person that causes you to see in people what they don't see in themselves, and what, in fact, others don't see in them. And in some sense, encouragement calls that out. So here's Barnabas, and he's saying, "You know what? I believe that John Mark's a keeper. I don't care that I don't care that he deserted us. I mean, that's not cool, but I think there's something in him, and I think with a little time and a little nurture and a little encouragement, I think this guy could do something for God." Wow. We don't know. But I mean, to give you an idea of his John Mark's past, he may be the guy that in Mark 16, when Jesus is arrested, flees naked, they grab his robe, and he's off. I mean, so this guy's got a history of desertion. If Paul knows that, Paul's like, "Hey, he deserted Jesus. He deserted us. I mean, what more do you want? He's not going. He's not fit for the fight." Barnabas says, "Well, hey, I encourage you." And Paul says, "Do you have to keep bringing that up?" You know how it goes.
Well, their disagreement, verse 39, "was so sharp they separated, and Barnabas took John Mark with him and sailed for Cyprus." I mean, he and Paul split. It had to break his heart. Paul chose Silas, verse 40, and he left, and the believers entrusted him to the Lord's gracious care, and he traveled throughout Syria and Cilicia, strengthening the churches that were there. Do you think Barnabas was stung by that? Hey, he's human. Probably did. Did it keep him from encouraging? Not on your life. Because what he understood is that encouragement can change a person's life. And we all want to say one kind word or one nice sentence or paragraph to people and have their life be transformed. And sometimes that happens. Sometimes it takes a whole lot of encouragement. Parents, I would just say this to you: You, of all people, should be your child's encourager. I'm not saying you don't train them and show them areas they're weak, but for every negative comment you make, give them 20 encouraging comments. Fill them full of encouragement. Yes.
You say, "Did it pay off?" The encouraging? Well, if you've enjoyed the writings of Paul, Barnabas encouraged him when no one else would touch him. Christianity, in some sense, came to Europe because of Barnabas, because he's the one who encouraged Paul. Did his investment in John Mark pay off? Well, do you enjoy reading the Gospel of Mark? That's right. Because Peter dictated it to John Mark. It was written by a first-century deserter who became the first gospel writer. Talk about a divine turnaround. Talk about the difference of encouragement to change the trajectory of somebody's life. In fact, even Paul changed his tune on John Mark. He gets down to the end of his life. He's in the Mamertine Prison in Rome, writing the final verses of 2 Timothy chapter 4. And probably in a very short time, maybe that very day, his head will be cut off, he'll die a martyr. But he writes this: "Get Mark and bring him with you, why? Because he is helpful to me in my ministry." [Music] Listen, he changed. How did he change? Encouragement changes people. It gives people, it gives people the ability to go another day.
There's a saying that's been attributed to Socrates, Plato, almost every philosopher in the world, but it, we don't know where it came from, but it's: "Be kind always, for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle you just don't know what your conversation could do to change somebody's life." And I really feel this personally, this whole principle of how it can change, because that happened in my life. Some of you have heard the story. When we were going to come down to James River, they'd asked us to help start the church, and we told them no. And seven months later, we happened to be going through Springfield and we stopped and saw one of the families in the church. And we went out to what was at the time Shoney's on National and Battlefield, and they were saying they couldn't get anybody to take the church. And I'd given them several friends' names. I said, "Your friends aren't coming. Will you come?" And, and, um, I said, "And, you know, is this one of those kind of things?" And so they had a person they were going to look at. I said, "He's going to take it, but if he doesn't take it, call me." We get in the car, and Debbie's like, "Why in the world? Why would you ever say that? You don't want to live in Springfield." I was like, "They're never going to call." Until 9 o'clock the next morning, and they call and they're like, "That guy, which name are you in or out? We just need to know." And so we came down. And, and, um, you know, Kansas City at the time, the church in Kansas City was bigger than the church here, and was certainly, uh, more well-funded, in the sense it was stronger, almost in every other way. But it had been such a difficult go that about a year and a half into it, I'd lost complete heart. So I'm going through the motions, and I'm telling Debbie all through the, the spring and the summer, "I want to leave." And she's like, "Are you mad? We've done all this work, and you, you just now have it where it's..." I said, "You know what? I just want to leave." And, and sometimes when you feel like a failure, and you, you know, I, because I, I said, "I quit," and you know, to the Lord and to the district, and all of a sudden, God was like, "Okay, great. You're out of the way." And He blew on it, and it just went from, you know, eight people to over a hundred people. I mean, it just took off. But at that moment, I'm detached. I feel like they're going one way, I'm going another way, and I just want to leave. And actually, to be honest, I want to leave the ministry. So I'm thinking in my mind about how I can, you know, where I can go to law school, what I can do. And I'm kind of thinking all those things.
And so we meet with the leadership team. They tell us, you know, about the church, and, uh, they ask us about ourselves. And I just tell them, "Hey, listen, you know, I, I need to tell you, it's been a real rough going in Kansas City, and we're really kind of burned out. And, and Debbie, she's been doing everything. So I just need to ask you, for the first nine months, don't ask her to do one thing. Just give her a break." And as for me, I mean, you're catching me at a bad time. I, I just gotta be honest with you, I don't have a lot of energy relative to vision. And if you need a visionary, I'm not your guy. And if you need somebody who can put the jumper cables on the church and light it up, that's not me, because I don't have a vision for Springfield. I don't really have a vision for James River. And I feel kind of like a failure. And they were like, "You are just the person we're looking for." I mean, it's really bizarre. I mean, I look back on it, I'm like, "I don't know. I don't know what was going on." I mean, God must have blinded their eyes, plugged their ears.
So anyway, the next morning, you know, they talked to us. And the next morning, I tell one of the leaders, "I would go to breakfast." We're over on Steak 'n Shake on South Campbell, and I just tell him, "Hey, listen, let me just shoot you straight. Uh, I think you make a big mistake if you bring us in. Um, you know, I feel like a failure, and I just don't think I, I just don't think it's helpful for the church if you would bring somebody like us in right now, and I think you need to look elsewhere." And he looked at me and he said, "I don't think you're a failure. I think you can be good for us, and we can be good for you. And I hope you'll come." And on that one statement, we moved here. One person said, "I don't think you are what you think you are." One person said, "I think you can do more than you think you can do, and I believe in you." One person said that, and our whole life changed. I'm just telling you, you never know with that one conversation, with that one breakfast, with that one text, with that one email, what that one letter could do to change the course of somebody's life. That is the power of encouragement. In a lot of ways, we're never more like God than when we're encouraging somebody to get up, to go again, to believe that the best is yet to come. Amen.
Up everybody. Thank you so much for joining James River Church on our YouTube channel. Our prayer is that you were encouraged and your faith was strengthened today. And we want to let you know that we want to connect with you on our online family. You can just click the link next to me to connect with us as well. We would love if you subscribe to the YouTube channel today and press that bell for notifications. You will be so glad you did because we're always putting out great sermons, new worship content that helps you stay up to date with everything that's happening at James River Church. We hope you have a great day today, and we'd love for you to join our live Sunday services every Sunday and Wednesday. Thank you again for watching. God bless.