Transcription
Thank you, Jesus. Thank you, Jesus. Thank you, Jesus.
Thank you to everybody that has helped us so far in the service. And I want to thank Brother and Sister Peio for helping organize today and it's many facets and many people that need to be contacted. So, we're grateful for their help.
Um, thank you for coming. Pastors already mentioned, but, uh, let me tack on to that greeting and that welcome and say we're so very, very thankful everybody's in the house of the Lord this morning.
I'm going to hurry. And some of you know that sometimes when I hurry, it gets sloppy. But I think the message can come through. Has anyone not understood some of what's been sung here this morning? Welcome to their world. And you just have to let the spirit shine through and let. Isn't that wonderful that sometimes just to turn the tables a little bit?
I know that culture brings differences and, and, uh, the unknown is uncomfortable for some people, but, um, even me walking through the foyer with my shabbar kamise, I didn't even wear the pants 'cuz I thought, you know what, I might mess some people up if I have big bloom pants on this morning. But I will tell you, I'm very comfortable. And, um, I mean, in my attire, this is a comfortable, lots of movement. So, get ready for me to do some flying off the platform, some running through the aisles. Nobody is safe from the front to the back this morning. I'm just teasing.
1 Corinthians chapter 12 and verse 12, if you would turn there with me. For as the body is one and hath many members, and all the members of that one body being many, are one body, so also is Christ. For by one spirit we are all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free, and have been ma been all made—everyone say all—all made to drink into one spirit.
And I know that we represent many nations and cultures, languages, and diversity this morning. But can I, can I just let everybody know today that this is one big church and that God has one big plan and one big purpose, and that is for His church to represent His desire for every person to be reached with the gospel of Jesus Christ?
And so, I'm going to speak just for a few moments this morning on the model and message of an apostolic church. Father, I thank You for Your power and Your presence that's already been here. And I thank You, Jesus, that You bring comfort in the midst of struggle. God, that You bring peace in the midst of storm. And God, that You bring answers in the midst of questions.
And there are people that came this morning and they have questions that they've been unable to answer by themselves. They've been unable to answer with education. They've been unable to answer by personal means and measures. But, Lord, today I'm so grateful that You are the answer. And You are here to meet need and to meet people where they are. And I pray that Your presence and that Your power would present to heal and touch, deliver, and save. We pray in the name that's above every other name. Would you just one more time say, "In Jesus' name"? And you may be seated.
I did want to take a moment and personally welcome Estella Payatt and Julie McDonald. They are from the Filipino Association of New Brunswick, and they are with us this morning. Would you make them feel welcome today?
And I also wanted just to, to briefly acknowledge, uh, many of the people that you see here are people that we have connected to as a church family by teaching English as a second language. And we have 20ome helpers and teachers that teach each week. And, uh, some of the students are here, and I'm not sure if everybody noticed, but on the inside of your bulletin, we've named as many of the students as we could. Um, we want to welcome them here this morning. Many of them are with us today.
And, and also, I wanted to acknowledge that five of our teachers have just recently completed ESL certification, which is a long, grueling, treacherous course. I know because my wife did it. So, Amanda, Kathy, Charlene, Nicole, and Don have all completed an ESL certification course, and that helps them do a better job of teaching. We've got great reports back, um, about how the students are learning. So, we are very, very grateful for everything that they are doing to make that more productive. Everyone said, "Amen." Amen.
I recently purchased an old outboard motor, an engine for a boat. Everyone know what an outboard motor is? I, I'm trying not to talk in code. Outboard motor. Uh, which was, uh, immediately breaking a rule that I kind of made for myself this summer. Knowing the projects that we had here at the church and personal projects that I had, I thought, "I can't do any more projects this year." As a matter of fact, I'm going to clean the garage out and, uh, I'm not going to fill it up with junk like I do every winter. You know, the winter becomes this process of moving things around so I can get the van in because the only thing, uh, I... anyhow, quickly, quickly, I have, I'm going to give myself 10 minutes, but everyone knows that preachers, probably, you need to double that.
Okay, so I, I, I, I told myself, "No more projects this summer." So, in my casual wanderings through the Kijiji classified ads, I came across this advertisement. This ad for a genuine antique outboard engine. I didn't know it at the time, but it's 56 years old. And something just kind of clicked in my brain that said, "Jack, you need this." I'm not sure where that voice comes from, but I find it very difficult occasionally to resist that voice, whatever that voice is.
Um, so I wrote the guy an email, and he wrote back and said, "$100." And for me, that was too much donero. So, no sale. Fast forward a month, and the ad is still in Kijiji because nobody else in the city of Frederickton even cares that this motor is for sale, let alone the fact that they might buy it. And so, I email him again, and now the price has dropped dramatically. It's half price. It's $50. And again, the voice says, "You need this motor."
And so, I arrange a visit. It involves a trip to Nashwalkis. I can handle that. $50. I, I think I can handle that. So, I give him a call and arrange a time to come and see it, and, and I walked down his driveway literally into history. Uh, old signs for soda and motor oil and old gas pump, some tractor parts. It was just like heaven. Um, it was like a quaint, tastefully decorated antique shop, kind of like where an old and a new world meet in a collision course in his driveway, but beautiful in a classy, classic kind of way. You know what I mean?
So, that's when I met Mitch. Mitch came out to meet me, a jovial fella that just made you feel at home in his world, that world of collision. Um, huge smile, very kind man. He told me, "I, I've been picking since before it was popular." Now, for those of you that might be thinking about banjo or guitar, has nothing to do with that at all. Being a picker means, uh, it means making a few dollars for your time and effort, but in the process, it means making things available that you would never find at Walmart. Antiques that would still be sitting in a shed or under a tarp or stuck in the dirt and forgotten until they are picked up by a picker and someone else comes along and plucks it from them.
And so, as we made his way down his driveway past all kinds of articles from the past, he told me the truth. He said, "I don't know anything about it. I thought it might be nice to hang on the wall. Make me an offer. Everything that you don't want to hear if you want something, want to buy something that works." And he said, "I just want to get it out of my yard." Which, for some reason, I still had this desire to bring it to mine.
So, we came to where the motors were, and, and, um, I don't know if, guys, if you can help me. This may be out of the light. I want everyone to be able to see this really well. Alex, Jim, who's stronger? Hang on. I got. Okay.
So, I don't really know what I was expecting. I'm not even sure what you're expecting right now, but let me do the unveiling here. What do you think of that? 1946 to 49. I'm scared to pull on this because it might start. I have that much faith. It's never started yet. But we are in an apostolic church service. So, I'm not sure really what I was expecting, but when I saw this lane in the dirt, I don't know if it's, you know, the pastor in me or if it's the crazy in me that says, "I think I can get this to work."
So, I'm kind of looking it over. I'm, you know, pulling things and turning things. And this was stuck up here, taped up with electrical tape. And, and I'm trying to unplug everything. And I'm looking around. I said, "You know, I think it's all there. I think it's all there." So, we negotiated for a couple of minutes, and, and, uh, I, I, I kind of walked away. I felt happy with leaving $40 behind and, and dragging off this. But not only this, it also comes with a power motor. This, isn't that awesome? If you haven't know, this is a juice can. How come nobody else finds this amazing? It is for sale.
So, I don't know really know what I was expecting, but again, my optimism overcame my common sense. And I leave with the motor. Literally, as I'm leaving the driveway, Mitch—he's, he's a great guy, he's a really great guy—he's laughing and he's saying, "Well, if it won't work as a motor, at least you got yourself an anchor." And again, my optimism kicks in, and I say, "$50 for an anchor? Pretty good. $40 for an anchor."
Um, so, okay, let me get to the point because lunch is waiting, and I'm between you and that. The point of the story is this: that as I began to search for information about this boat motor, I kind, I'd find conflicting facts about the year, different people writing down from their own experiences and their own personal vantage points and what they did or what their parents did, what their grandparents did, because this motor has been around for 56 years. 56 years. And I didn't want the wrong information because I don't want to end up wasting more time than I already am.
But I knew what I needed. I needed original paperwork. I needed original model information. I had to find an original manual, and, and, and I needed to know not what people said about this, but I needed to figure out what manufacturers said about this. What, uh, Johnson himself had to say about the TD20. This is the TD20 motor. Manufactured in, um, I don't know where it was manufactured. Somebody's backyard, I think. But, um, I needed original—everyone say original—design information, and, uh, and, you know, that's, that's kind of, I mentioned that this other motor kind of comes into play because I, I want to draw a comparison between these two motors this morning.
Um, this is what, in my mind's eye, this looks like. If you squint real hard and imagine real big, this is what it looks like. It's an original 1946 seahorse in sea green, not a mess like this. That's what I see in my mind. And then along with it comes this little tag along. Now, I can appreciate this because it shows ingenuity. I think it's amazing that someone said, "I'm going to take a juice can and turn it into a gas tank." That just fires me up for some reason. That fires me up.
Um, and as a matter of fact, as I began to look a little deeper into this, I found that this isn't a boat motor at all. This is a chainsaw engine. Seriously, this is, this is a Pioneer 600 chainsaw motor. And some of you that worked in the woods, maybe you know exactly what that model is or what that represents. But that's a Pioneer 600 chainsaw motor. So, I know that somebody kind of had some dreams for this and from their own personal experience said, "I think I can make this work." Now, on this one, I've just given up. I don't, I don't think I can make this work.
But I, I do have a point this morning I'd like to leave with you. The point is, is that this one has some hope because it still is very close to the original model. And the only hope I have of getting this going is by going back to the original model. And sometimes in our lives, that's what we have to do. We have to go back to origin. We have to do that when we're dealing with people.
Doctors don't study anomalies. They, they study the original, and they know what is necessary to be original. They know what you need personally. They know what you need physically. They know that because they've studied what you need to be whole. That's the intention behind medicine.
When it comes to, um, chart work, we're, we're getting ready to do a building expansion out on our foyer, and, and, uh, the, the drawings are very particular. We have to be very particular about how those are drawn. Brother Darcy Dudley, he's been helping us with that. We're excited about it. But before that could pass through the processes of permit, they've got people that say, "Well, what are you going to do here?" They want to be sure that there is an original set of drawings that we can look to, that everybody that's involved in this process can say, "That is what we need to do." Everybody's working off the same page. Everybody's working off the same idea. Everybody's working toward the same goal. It's not their intention. It's the intention of following those drawings. So, you have to go back to the original. There will be many times in the next few months that we consult those drawings because we don't want to detract from that. We want to follow through on what was intended. And in order for that to be maintained, you have to go to the original.
Well, I found some original documentation on this motor. Um, I got this here. This here is an original manual. If you leaf through it, it gives you all kinds of general instructions. General instructions are a lot, uh, more expansive back then because there was a lot more to know about it. There's more knobs, dials, and things to turn than I can imagine. It's not an electronic CDI. It's points that you've got to adjust and all kinds of different things. But I now have a benchmark that I can work off of. Now I have a benchmark. I have an idea about what's necessary. I know what's proper or improper. I know what's original. I know. I know what I need to do to get that working.
Can I just tell you that sometimes religion takes turns because people try to adapt to the needs in their lives personally? And I think sometimes, as we look at religion—and we're in service this morning, we're in church—but what religion comes from is people's good attempts to solve a problem or a challenge in their life. And so, sometimes, with the best intention, religion can become skewed. It be, it can be, get, get a little bit sideways. It can, it can deter from the original plan, the original purpose, the original intention, what God originally designed.
Now, I'm sure that this worked for somebody. I'm sure that this worked at one point, but this was a very specific need by someone that was it was very personal. For instance, I'm not going to be able to find anywhere else in the world somebody that can give me a, a Pioneer 600 motor part to match up to the outboard engine that's on this thing. Not going to happen. But this I can. I can search all kinds of parts. There's thousands of these made. And so, sometimes that met somebody's particular need from a personal vantage point. And sometimes that's what happens with religion. And because it worked for somebody, they think that it's going to work for everybody. But in order for it to work for everybody, you've got to go back to the original.
And that's what I'd like to look at this morning, just for a few more moments. That's why, as a church, we don't look to religion. We do look to the Bible. We don't look at man-made rules. We look at what the scripture says for the church to be and for the church to become. We don't let authority come from people. We need leadership. We need all those things. But we let ultimate authority come from God. And when we have that basis and that benchmark, everything else falls into play and comes into order.
And so, if we took a look quickly at the church—and I'll tell you how quick we're going to be—is that I'm going to ask the music to come because that calms the fears of our newcomers and people that are here for service for guests, but our, our musicians and our lead singers know that they're just going to be standing for a long time. But anybody that studies the Bible will tell you that the original church started on the day of Pentecost. They will tell you that the recorded beginning of the church that we are a part of happens in Acts chapter 2. And there is a record of that momentous day. And, and you say, "Well, how are you going to tie this all together, Jack?" It's, it's kind of neat. I think, felt like the Lord just kind of impressed this on me. And it may be common sense for some, but I tell you it's a necessary part of what we need to be.
Scripture says, "And when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place. And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting. And there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as a fire, and it sat upon each of them, and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost. It began to speak with other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance."
And so, in order for us to continue to be the original church, there is a model that's given. We have a model. We have a model of what it is, and we have a model of what it's to become. And we want to be original in our intention. We want to go back to the original design because anything else can be an anomaly. It can become something that's sideways. It's not perfect. It's not what God intended. If I showed this to the Johnson Motor Company engineer, he would laugh. Because that is nothing that they intended when they drew up the drawings. That's nothing what they intended. This? Yes. That? No.
But as a church, why do we think that we can be any different? God intends for us to go back to the original and see what He wanted us to be 2,000 years later because that hasn't changed. If God doesn't change, why would He want His church to change? And so, it's important that we see how the original church started, what the original church did, because we want to continue to be just like the original church in Y2K. Yes. 2015. Yes. Meeting the needs of our culture and meeting the needs of our, gen, the generation that we're a part of. Yes. But apostolic in nature, for sure. The Bible's our manual, our maintenance schedule, our service manual. Everything that we need is found in the word of God.
So, we want to be like the original church was in Acts chapter 2. So, why did Jesus give His disciples very explicit instructions? I'll tell you why. Because He had plans for His people to become the church. He told His disciples in Luke 24. He said, "Thus it behooved Christ to suffer, rise from the dead. Preached that sins remission, that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in His name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. And ye are witnesses of these things. And behold, I send a promise of My Father upon you, but tear ye in the city of Jerusalem until you be endued with power from on high."
And so, He tells us that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in His name. That repentance is there. And this morning, we're going to see an example of remission of sins because when Isaiah is buried in the name of Jesus, the Bible tells us that that is for the remission of sins. So, repentance and remission of sins. Repentance is that turning around. Repentance is baptism.
God has a plan for the early church. And he, and it's interesting, in sake of, for the sake of the service this morning, to zero in on this phrase underlined at the bottom of this verse: "But tar ye in Jerusalem." Why Jerusalem? I think we have the answer to that question in Acts 2:5 because it says there were dwelling in Jerusalem Jews, devout men. But here, listen. Out of every nation under heaven, every nation under heaven. I mean, you could have gone to Bethlehem and you probably wouldn't have had every nation under heaven, but Jerusalem became a melting pot. Just like this morning, CCC is a melting pot for people from all over the world that came to be a part of what was happening in Jerusalem.
And so, Jesus said, "I want the church to begin in Jerusalem because if I begin the church in Jerusalem, the church can touch the whole world through Jerusalem." And so, specifically, He tells them to go to Jerusalem, and, and they land there, and they find men, every nation under heaven, there. Scripture says it was noise abroad. The multitude came together and were confounded at what? At this church service that was happening. People that were stumbling under, under the power of the Holy Ghost, coming out. They thought they were drunk. But the Bible says, and they were confounded. Every man heard him speak in his own language. You mean God would do that? Yes, God would do that.
They were all amazed and marveled, saying one to another, "Behold, are not all these which speak Galilean? And now, and how we hear every man in our own tongue, where we were born, our own tongue: Parththeians and me and Elummites, and me dwellers of Mesopotamia and Judea and Capidoshia and Pontius and Asia and Fergilia and Egypt and parts of Libya and Sirene, the strangers of Rome, Jews and proelitates, Creeks and Arabians."
Why did the Bible take time to name all of those people groups? I tell you why. Because God wanted a multicultural church to begin in Jerusalem. That was God's intention. That was God's plan. That was God's purpose. And when we take a look around and we see all the flags that are represented, the then known world was represented by people that were in Jerusalem. And when those 120 came out of the upper room, what they heard was a message of salvation and hope and promise in their own tongue.
And it's amazing to me that Jesus plans from the very beginning to have a multicultural church. The very first thing He does in the first church service, in the first century, in the first moments that the church begins, is He erases all the borders and the boundaries and anything that would separate them like language and culture, and He says, "Hang on. This is My church. [Music] Everybody, everyone." Three times just in that portion of scripture, it's reiterated that they heard them speak in their own tongue the wonderful works of God. That's how much God cares for everybody.
And if you think that there weren't prejudice or bias, you were wrong in that day. If you think that there aren't prejudice and bias in this day, you're wrong. But what the goal and the role of the apostolic church is, is to dissolve the boundaries and dissolve the borders, to dissolve what separates us so that we can preach a message of truth to the world that we live in. Why do we have ECC? Why do we have ESL? Why do we have a webcast that literally is broadcast all around the world?
Pastor, he mentioned the countries that he's been in. Regardless of where he is in the world, he has people coming up to him saying, "We watch your webcast. We watch you guys online. We watch your church services. We are literally able to touch the entire world from Frederickton, New Brunswick." Do we do that? Why do we do that? Because we are part of the multicultural church that God desired. Like the first church, the original, the intention was so there is no boundaries and there is no barriers. There is nothing that separates us. But we are a part of a one, not a one world church, but the church, the church that God intends for us to be a part of.
And so, they were amazed. Pastor Matt mentioned this last night, and he had no idea what I was speaking about this morning, but it said the apostolic church said they were all amazed and were in doubt, saying one to another, "What means this?" I'll tell you what it meant for the sake of our service this morning. It meant that the most important thing to God was that we are a part of a church that is made up from people from all around the world. Thank you.
And that this model of what God intended the church to consist of needs to be continued. It was Nelson Mandela that said, "If you talk to a man in a language he understands, that goes to his head. He understands it here. But if you talk to a man in his language, that goes to his heart." I believe that's true. And I believe that what God was doing in that first church service was telling the whole world, "This is for you. And I have no other message than that this morning: This is for you." This message of hope, this message of power, this message of deliverance, this message that Jesus loves you, this message of salvation is here available for you this morning.
That's the model. And the message hasn't changed either. The same message that Peter preached on that day of Pentecost is still the same. I'm hurrying. I'm working my way through notes and, and maybe skipping some things that pull this sermon together homalytically. But can I tell you this morning that the message that Peter preached is valid and valuable today for every nation. Everybody here, we want everybody to be a part of CCC. If you can look on the wall and find your flag, that means you're part of this church. You can be a part of this church.
We invest money in missions because we believe that God wants to send a miss message all around the world. But at the same time, we also believe that anybody that's in Frederickton that wants to be part of a multicultural church can be. The door is open. The message is the same. The method is God's plan and God's purpose. And it's not some foreign entity. It's not some strange thing. It's more like the original than you can imagine because that was a part of the original church in Acts chapter 2. Every kindred, every tongue, every nation, every people available to receive the message that God has for them standing together with me this morning.
The scripture that tells us all those things also tells us that Peter began to preach to them about the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ. Now these people had been a part of that. The scripture says that when they heard this, they were pricricked in their hearts and said to Peter, to the rest of the apostles, "Men and brethren, what shall we do?" So, we have the method. We, we, we know what the church is supposed to look like. It's supposed to be a multicultural church. It's supposed to have some cultural diversity. We know that. But it's to have one message of hope and one message of deliverance. And Peter preaches the one message that brings salvation to culture group after culture group, people group, people group, nation to nation, language to language. He says simply, "Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of your sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost." That promise for you. That promise today.
Jesus throughout His ministry broke down every barrier to the gospel: socioeconomic barriers, the lepers to the poor; racial barrier barriers, the Samaritan woman at the well, the Syphenician woman; age barriers. He picked up children and said, "Don't suffer the little children to come to Me." He stepped over anything that would separate someone from receiving the message that He was including them in. And today, the message of hope, the message of deliverance, the message of salvation steps over every barrier, every border, every one of these things, back to the original intention that God had for the church, and preaches the same message in 2015 because it's a message of hope and it's a message of deliverance. [Music]
Baptism washes sins away regardless of your past. God's spirit gives you strength to live for Him. Repentance gets you engaged in what God wants to do. That's still the plan for today and it's still the plan for all of us.
Would you bow your head? We're going to close in prayer for the message, but then I'm going to ask if Pastor would join us on the platform, and we're going to pray for nations around the world, but I'm also asking that there will be a challenge in the Holy Ghost this morning. And if someone senses that challenge, I'm going to invite you to respond. It may mean that you want to come to the front. It may mean that you want to pray where you are, but you, you want to make a decision to change your life right now. And that's what that repentance step is. It's about changing your life, turning life around. Baptism may be your next step this morning. I'm inviting anybody that feels the need to be baptized so sin is washed out of your life to take that step this morning. And the spirit of God is a work that God does in our life. And we are filled with His spirit. There is nothing like that this morning.
Father, in this brief time that we've had together, God, we've experienced so many things this morning. We've experienced different cultural things. God, we've experienced music that may, maybe we're not accompanied to, or words that we don't know. But, God, the one thing that we do sense moving here that everybody can acknowledge and that everybody can sense is the moving of Your spirit. And there is no love like that love. And there is no care like that care. So, Father, this morning, I pray that You would reach beyond what words could, through a message, what music could, through a song. God, I pray that You would reach into somebody's life this morning and that You would compel them to make changes. God, compel them to turn and live for You. God, that it would be a compelling by Your spirit to redirect them from sin to You. God, I pray that someone would repent this morning. I ask that somebody would be baptized and would follow through on that feeling. God, I pray that someone will be filled with Your spirit today because, God, we want to be like Your original church, original in design, original in method, original in model, but, God, I pray, original in message for sure. And so, Father, I pray that Your spirit do that work in every heart, in every life. We ask in Jesus' name.
Pastor, if you join me on the [Music] platform, would you take a moment and just talk to God in your own way? I do feel the spirit of the Lord here in this [Music] place. Holy Ghost, move right now.
I'm so grateful for Pastor Woo. He has a heart not only for Freredictton but for the world, and it's taken him away, some away from his family, traveling difficult hours, but to preach a message of salvation to many nations that you see represented right here in this room by flags. I'm going to ask this morning that he would pray over our world and about nations. And those of you that are represented here this morning, I pray that you would receive this blessing that we want to pray for you because we believe that God wants His blessing to rest in your lives, in your homes, on your nations, wherever you may be from, there, and here today. Do you believe that that could happen? Church family, do you believe that could happen?
We're going to pray together. This is Friendship Sunday. If you would just reach over to the person standing next to you, would you take them by the hand, or if it's more comfortable, would you just put your hand on their shoulder? And just across this building, let's connect as friends. And we want to pray for every nation that is represented here and for our nation as well.
Lord Jesus, I thank You, God, for this Sunday. I thank You for everything it means to us. And I thank You, God, that Your church is the one place where we not only have human friends, friends in our family, friends in our neighborhood, but, God, we have You, the friend that sticks closer than even a brother. And I thank You for that, God. Right now, we pray for the nations of our world, God. So many of the nations today, they are filled with trials and turmoil, violence, hatred, persecution. God, we have many wonderful friends here, and at home they have family who are still in a nation where there is unrest, still in a nation where there is war.
And so, God, we pray that You would use us as Your people to touch the nations. God, I pray for Australia and the Philippines and China and Japan. I pray, God, for Russia. I pray for Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan. I pray for Spain and France and the United Kingdom. I pray, God, for Togo and Ghana and Uganda and Kenya and Madagascar and South Africa. I pray, Jesus, for Libya and Iran and Iraq. I pray, God, for what we would call the trouble spots of the world where sometimes evil men are in control. But, God, let Your church be strong. Let Your people do exploits. And, God, would You bring them from every nation and tongue and kindred and people and language, rushing into Your church before You return at the end of time.
Lord God, for our friends that have come here, wherever they are from, I pray Your blessing on them today. I pray You would draw each of us to walk with You. Pray You would draw each of us to obey Your word because only in Your word do we find the answer, and only in Your word do we find eternal life. And that is why You said, "I am the way, the truth, and the life, and no one comes to the Father except by Me." And so, Jesus, as we close this service, we offer up to You the only One, the only God, the only answer. We offer up to You our greatest praise in Jesus' name.
Would you close this service by giving God a great praise? Thank you, Jesus. Hallelujah. Thank you, Jesus. I love you, Jesus. I love you, Jesus. I worship you, God. I worship you, God.
I want to leave you with just two announcements before we leave. It's so good to see everyone here. And we have guests from, uh, Frederickton. We have guests from different cities and towns in New Brunswick. We're so glad you're all here, uh, to be with us. And of course, our friends that have immigrated to Canada, and you are here. If you are being taught ESL, we're so thrilled that we are connected with you in friendship. Uh, if you are attending ECC, we're thrilled that we're connected with you in friendship. And if you're, uh, coming on the bus, we're so thrilled that we're connected with you in friendship. And for everyone that's here, we're so grateful we can be a friend of God.
We have an international potluck dinner that's happening in the lower auditorium when you leave the sanctuary. You go to that end of the lobby, up the ramp, and then immediately to your left, and that takes you down to the international potluck dinner. You're welcome to stay with us. We'd love to have you.
Tonight at 6, we'll have another service. This Wednesday night at 7, we're continuing a series that we're really enjoying. It's called Laugh Your Way to a Better Marriage. And if you are married, you could use some laughter in your home. And you can't fight your way to a better marriage, but you can laugh your way to a better marriage. So, we'd invite you this Wednesday. We'd love to have you.
Would you, uh, do one last thing for Pastor Raymond on your way out? Would you find at least 10 people that you haven't already greeted and would you say, "I'm glad we got to be at Friendship Sunday together"? God bless you in the name of the Lord. We love you, church. Tonight at 6.