Episode Transcript
[00:00:04] And I believe this morning that in these next few moments, God's going to help you understand something about the provision that you have in your life that you may be living like you don't have it.
[00:00:16] And for goodness sake, come on now, let's be people of truth. Let's be people who understand the renewing of our thinking.
[00:00:26] There's a story that's probably one of the most famous stories that Jesus told.
[00:00:32] It's a story of a father and two sons.
[00:00:37] And one of the sons does something that we now term him as the prodigal son. I'm going to read these verses to us. I know that some of you will have physical Bibles with you. If you've got them, you might want to turn to Luke, chapter 15, verses 11 to 31. If you haven't got a physical Bible, many of you will have phones with the Bible on. And as long as you resist looking at Facebook or anything else, pull your phone out and dial into Luke, chapter 15, verse 11. I'm going to be reading from the new living translation. So if you've got another version, it might be slightly tweaked, but here is the story, Luke 15:11 onwards.
[00:01:24] To illustrate the point further, Jesus told them this story.
[00:01:31] A man had two sons.
[00:01:34] The youngest son told his father, I want my share of your estate now before you die.
[00:01:43] So his father agreed to divide his wealth between his sons.
[00:01:49] A few days later, this younger son packed all his belongings and moved to a distant land. And there he wasted all his money in wild living.
[00:02:02] About the time that his money ran out, a great famine swept over the land and he began to starve.
[00:02:11] He persuaded a local farmer to hire him, and the man sent him into his fields to feed the pigs.
[00:02:20] The young man became so hungry that even the pods he was feeding the pigs looked good to him, but no one gave him anything. Okay, are you understanding the desperation of the situation?
[00:02:34] So the context in the beginning, and by the way, any younger sons that are here, this is not an option to go to your father and ask for his inheritance now.
[00:02:43] So this is a cultural story that he gets this, the entitlement that he should have waited till his father's pass and his father's death. And he receives this, but he wastes it, he blows it, he parties with it, it runs out. He now has nothing.
[00:03:01] Even what the pigs have look good to him. Let's pick it back up in this story, verse 17, when he finally came to his senses.
[00:03:17] There's a moment in all of our lives when we finally Come to our senses.
[00:03:22] I pray that we won't wait till tomorrow to come to our senses.
[00:03:28] He said at this moment to himself, at home, even the hired servants have food enough to spare.
[00:03:37] And here I am, dying of hunger.
[00:03:41] I will go home to my father and say, father, I have sinned against both heaven and you, and I am no longer worthy of being called your son. Please take me on as a hired servant.
[00:03:57] So he returned home to his father, and while he was still a long way off, his father saw him come in.
[00:04:06] Filled with love and compassion, he ran to his son, embraced him and kissed him.
[00:04:13] And his son said to him, father, I have sinned against both heaven and you, and I am no longer worthy to be called your son.
[00:04:23] But his father said to the servants, quick, bring the finest robe in the house and put it on him.
[00:04:33] Get a ring on his finger and put sandals on his feet.
[00:04:39] Kill the calf that we have been fattening.
[00:04:43] We must celebrate with a feast, for this son of mine was dead and is now returned to life.
[00:04:53] He was lost, but now he is found.
[00:04:57] So the party began.
[00:05:02] Meanwhile, the older son was in the fields working.
[00:05:11] And when he returned home, he heard music and dancing in the house.
[00:05:16] And he asked one of his servants, what's going on?
[00:05:20] Your brother's back, he was told, and your father has killed the fattened calf.
[00:05:28] We are celebrating because of his safe return.
[00:05:33] The older brother was angry and he wouldn't go in.
[00:05:38] His father came out and begged him, but he replied, all these years I've slaved for you, and I've never once refused to do a single thing that you told me to do.
[00:05:51] And in all that time, you never gave me even one young goat for a feast with my friends.
[00:05:59] Yet when this son of yours comes back after squandering your money on prostitutes, you celebrate by killing the fattened calf.
[00:06:11] His father said to him, look, dear son, you've always stayed by me and everything I have is yours.
[00:06:21] We had to celebrate this happy day, for your brother was dead.
[00:06:27] But now he's come back to life.
[00:06:30] He was lost, but now is found.
[00:06:36] What I want to share from this really well known story is not about prodigals, but it's about the mindset of the prodigal and it's also about the mindset of the older brother.
[00:06:52] They had a mindset that wasn't a son's. They had a mindset that even though they had a father and they had provision and they had stability, but that they lived like orphans.
[00:07:05] Let me tell you what the difference between an orphan and someone who is not an orphan? Let me tell you about the mindset impact on their life.
[00:07:14] First of all, orphans focus on resource, not relationships.
[00:07:20] He demanded the younger son his inheritance early.
[00:07:25] He basically said to his dad, I wish you were dead.
[00:07:31] He was more interested in the dollar than he was in the relationship.
[00:07:38] That's what happens in orphans. They want to know what I've got, not who I've got.
[00:07:45] You see this mindset, it has an impact upon our life.
[00:07:50] I grew up in a fairly needy sort of working class home, loved by my parents, great parents, godly people, but we never really had much as I was growing up.
[00:08:05] My parents have never taken me into a fancy restaurant ever in my life.
[00:08:13] I've never. My parents, we never stopped in a hotel.
[00:08:18] We went on holidays and slept in the car in Blackpool in a Levi.
[00:08:24] Honestly. That's what our family holidays often were. But we were loved. We didn't have much, but we were loved.
[00:08:32] But do you know, now I've had the blessing of traveling lots of places and often I play a game because I stay in so many hotels now as I'm traveling around the country. I play a game when I wake up in the morning before I open my eyes, I. I try to get where I am and I often get it wrong. And sometimes I have people put me up in nice hotels and it's lovely, but do you know, there's something still in me that thinks, I don't know if I should be here because I didn't grow up with this. There's a mindset that sometimes you think, oh, this is for others.
[00:09:12] Because that mindset, those lies, that other people are more valuable than you can get in there and they sit in your life and there's a lie that sits in some lives here, that things are more important than people.
[00:09:25] No, no, no, no.
[00:09:27] And you know, that's not for people who've got lots of things. Sometimes that impacts people who've got nothing because they think if only I had things, my life would be different. But you know, that's an awful mindset. It's not things you need, it's people.
[00:09:42] It's the provision of relationships, it's the blessing of being in community.
[00:09:47] That's why some of our colleagues around the world, we've got people that we're connected with that have lost their lives in Syria. The last few weeks they've been beheaded for their faith. I know a business guy in Syria who had his business taken off him. He spent the last 30 years building this up. And he's had it taken off him because. Because he's a Christian.
[00:10:12] We got Christians on the fleeing now for their life, taking their families with them.
[00:10:18] It's not things that matter, it's relationships.
[00:10:23] He demanded his inheritance earlier. I wish you were dead, father.
[00:10:28] He wanted his father's resource, but he didn't want his father's relationship.
[00:10:33] If there's something in you that always wants to be independent, always want to do your own thing, always want to live in isolation with kindness, I want to say this to you.
[00:10:47] There's a lie in your mind, and the lie is that you're not loved, that there's nobody watching out for you.
[00:10:59] And the truth is this, you are loved and God is watching out for you.
[00:11:05] You're not an orphan.
[00:11:08] I notice also orphans, they focus on the resource, not relationship.
[00:11:13] And, you know, I know people that have grown up without parents in their life and they've lived in care. And if that's been your experience, I want to say, you know, well done for making it this stage of your life. And God's got great things in store for you in the future.
[00:11:30] But I've known people who didn't have much and they're growing up and their instinct now is to hoard.
[00:11:37] Some friends of ours took somebody on that had lost their parents and that one of the challenges that they faced was that every time they had meals, they would take extra, hide it, put it in their pockets, and they would hoard it under their bed because they never knew if something was going to run out.
[00:11:58] So anytime they saw something, just grab it and grab it.
[00:12:03] But I want you to know that God is your father and he will provide and he will care.
[00:12:15] Because you're not an orphan.
[00:12:17] You don't have to be independent and hoard. You just have to trust and hold onto him.
[00:12:24] I've noticed also orphans keep their distance. He squandered everything. He went to a distant place. Orphans need hits in order to find identity. I can imagine this party scene where he is splashing out the rounds and saying, hey, it's on me, everybody basically buying his friendships.
[00:12:42] Hey, come and. Come and have a ride in my car. Look how cool this thing is.
[00:12:47] And it's just buying friendships.
[00:12:51] But in the process of trying to buy his identity, he lost everything because you can never get enough hits. You can never have enough resource.
[00:13:03] When crisis hit, he had no family network to turn to, and he ended up working for strangers. Where were all these friends now? They'd gone because they weren't friends. There were people just hanging on for what he was able to give them, eating pig food like somebody who had no family identity.
[00:13:21] See, because orphans think they need to earn everything, earn their friends, earn their connections, earn their sense of value.
[00:13:29] And we see this in verse 17. He says, Father, I've sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son. Make me like one of your hired servants.
[00:13:40] Why did he say that?
[00:13:42] Because he thought he had to earn it, that he had disqualified himself.
[00:13:49] My kids, I've got three kids. They can never disqualify themselves from being my kids.
[00:13:55] And we've had some testing times over the years, but I've never turned them and said, okay, you're not my son, you're not my daughter.
[00:14:03] Because they haven't got that, because they've earned it. They've got that because that's the truth.
[00:14:10] You are not sons and daughters of God because you've earned it. You're sons and daughters of God because he has chosen you and you're His.
[00:14:19] There's nothing you can do to qualify it. There's nothing you can do to disqualify it, because we don't earn this.
[00:14:27] You see, classic orphan thinking is, I've blown it so badly, I've lost my place in the family.
[00:14:32] Maybe I can earn my way back to them with some performance and service. You can't earn your way back to the family of God.
[00:14:39] You can't earn your way into the kingdom. You can't earn your way into God's good books.
[00:14:44] You simply receive that I am a sinner, but I am loved because of his grace, because of his mercy upon the cross, because we are not orphans.
[00:14:55] And I love the father's response. He dismantled the lies.
[00:15:00] He ran to his son.
[00:15:02] He didn't sort of say, oh, no, how am I going to deal with this?
[00:15:06] You know, there were chatgpt.
[00:15:08] How do I welcome back a vagabond son?
[00:15:12] He's like everything in the father we see in this moment. He runs, he runs to his son.
[00:15:22] This is not him thinking, oh, this is a bit awkward. What are we going to say? He rang his son, and I tell you why.
[00:15:30] Because he was looking to the horizon, because he knew one day his son will be back.
[00:15:36] That's the love of the father came running.
[00:15:44] Fathers don't run to hired servants, but they run to sons.
[00:15:50] And what did he do when he ran to him?
[00:15:54] Did he say, we need to talk about some things, we need to work through some issues, we need to have a Heart to heart about some very difficult matters, son. No, no, no, no.
[00:16:05] You see, when Jesus came to the earth, we read, he was full of two things.
[00:16:10] He was full of grace and full of truth.
[00:16:15] The order is important.
[00:16:18] If he had come full of truth and grace, maybe in this situation the Father would have said, we need to talk about some things.
[00:16:24] But the order is important. Jesus comes full of grace and truth. You see his heart demonstrated in his grace. Maybe at some other point there might have been a heart to heart and say, hey, how can we make sure this doesn't happen again?
[00:16:39] But full of grace, he embraced him, he hugged him, kissed him.
[00:16:47] The physical affection that's reserved only for family was demonstrated. The father was saying, you are not a hired servant.
[00:16:57] You are not a failure. You are my son and I love you.
[00:17:04] And I can imagine his son, you know, this prepared speech he had. When I see my father, I feel so bad about myself, my orphan thinking. But I'm going to say to him, I'm going to give an apology. I'm going to give all the account of my life, and I'm going to say, I'm no longer worthy. The Son had prepared that speech. And the son begins to speak, and the Father just goes, shh, Put his finger on his son's mouth.
[00:17:27] We're not told that that's what happened, but that's what I like to see in this story. Just shh, stop it now, because what you're about to say is not true.
[00:17:36] But what I'm about to say is he cut off his son's speech, wouldn't let him finish saying, make me a hired servant.
[00:17:46] But immediately he clothed his son. In truth, you see, this robe was the finest robe. There is no servant that would wear that robe. Putting the robe on him was saying, you are my son. You're my celebrated longed for, desired, prayed for son. And he surrounds him, covers him.
[00:18:11] Probably had some of the, you know, the debris of his pig job on him.
[00:18:16] Probably stank a little bit.
[00:18:19] Probably didn't look like a noble son, was probably skinny, underfed. Malnutrition was showing its signs. And the Father just covers it all up.
[00:18:35] He surrounds it and he covers it. He says, no, no, no, no, I'm not seeing that. I am seeing my love.
[00:18:44] And then he gives him, you see, the robe brought dignity, covered his shame.
[00:18:49] That's what the Father does with us.
[00:18:51] The ring places a ring on his finger.
[00:18:55] The ring symbolizes authority.
[00:18:59] When you wear this ring, not only are you loved, but you carry the authority of this house.
[00:19:06] You Thought you were disqualified.
[00:19:08] I see people go away from God and they come back and they say, for the first couple of years, I'm just going to take a back seat.
[00:19:16] You know, I'm not really. I'm not really able to do much.
[00:19:20] You know, I don't really have.
[00:19:22] I've disqualified myself. I need to earn my authority. And, you know, the truth of God's word is that all authority has been given to Jesus. And he says, therefore you go without authority.
[00:19:33] Jesus placed a ring on his church, on his people, and then I love that he put sandals on his feet.
[00:19:43] You see, slaves didn't have footwear.
[00:19:48] Sons did.
[00:19:52] And this was the statement that says, every step you take, you take as my son.
[00:19:58] You're not wandering and meandering on this. You are being reminded, clothed, covered authority and sonship.
[00:20:07] And then if that wasn't enough, he said, and this is not a private arrangement, just between the two of us.
[00:20:17] He said, this is a public news, and I'm going to tell everybody about this.
[00:20:24] My son who was dead is now alive. Get the music started, get the barbecue on. We are celebrated. I'm not embarrassed or ashamed. And the community, like, really going to do this for your son? I am absolutely going to do this for my son because he's my son.
[00:20:42] The older brother had an orphan mindset as well.
[00:20:47] He worked, tried to be the good one, but what was he doing? He wasn't doing that because he was saying, oh, it's a real joy to be your son, dad. We see in his narrative he was trying to earn something, felt he was more valuable because of the work that he did.
[00:21:03] He was, in the beginning of the story, given the same inheritance, but he didn't enjoy it.
[00:21:08] He didn't enjoy the inheritance or the relationship.
[00:21:12] He was bitter, resentful.
[00:21:16] Such a mindset builds walls between us and results in us feeling unappreciated.
[00:21:21] He didn't even acknowledge this was his brother. He said, this son of yours, not my brother. What are you doing to my brother? He said, this son of yours.
[00:21:31] See, orphan thinking impacts how we see each other, brings jealousy, brings. Even in church dynamics, it brings that sense of, why are they getting this and I'm not. It's not fair.
[00:21:45] See, the thing that most defines us is our relationship to our Father, not how we're celebrated by church communities.
[00:21:56] So much more I could say, but let me finish with this.
[00:22:01] John 14.
[00:22:03] Jesus says these words, I will not abandon you as orphans.
[00:22:10] And in the context of the Holy Spirit coming, he said, I will come to you, because the Holy Spirit is present. Jesus said it's good that Jesus goes away.
[00:22:26] I was speaking at a church recently. I said, hey, I hear that Jesus himself is coming next Sunday.
[00:22:33] Wow.
[00:22:35] And he's going to be praying for the sick and he's going to be sharing his wisdom.
[00:22:40] And I can immediately imagine if that was true. It if we said, next Sunday, Dio Glory Coffee Shop. Jesus is going to be here.
[00:22:48] He's going to be sharing with us.
[00:22:51] I tell you what, I've got plans next week, but I'm coming.
[00:22:56] And you'd be thinking, oh, no, I've got some friends I'm going to bring. I want them to hear Jesus. This place would be packed and overflowing.
[00:23:06] Might have to take the PA outside and do it on the streets. Because Jesus is here.
[00:23:11] Because faith and expectation will be so high. Because Jesus is going to be here.
[00:23:16] But Jesus said it's good that he's not here next week.
[00:23:20] He said that.
[00:23:21] Not that he doesn't want to come to rediscover Newton Abbott.
[00:23:26] Because the reason he says it's good that he's not here, because if he was here next week, he wouldn't be anywhere else.
[00:23:34] There's a big world.
[00:23:37] And the reason he said that it's good that he's not here is because the Holy Spirit is here next week.
[00:23:42] And the Holy Spirit is not here because he lives in this building. He's here because he lives in these people.
[00:23:48] And yet the Holy Spirit is no less God than Jesus.
[00:23:52] He has no less authority, no less power. He is God and He is here. And that's why church shall be a place of celebration.
[00:24:02] Because he is here and he is in us. And it's why you don't have to limp from day to day during the week and think, oh, if I can just survive till Sunday, I'll have a pick me up at church.
[00:24:15] Because he doesn't live in the church. He lives in the people who are the church, not the buildings.
[00:24:22] So throughout your week, the Holy Spirit is with us. And he's saying, I'm going to put my robe on you.
[00:24:29] I'm going to put my authority on you. I'm going to place my sonship on you. And you walk filled with the Spirit, not as orphans, but as sons and daughters of God, knowing that you get your value and your love from who he is.
[00:24:47] He's a loving father says, what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we could be called children of God.
[00:24:56] And that is who we are.
[00:24:58] What do you Say after me, I am a child of God.
[00:25:04] Now let that go from just your ears and your mouth. Let that sit in your heart.
[00:25:10] Just pause a moment and think about what you just said. I am a child of God.
[00:25:19] That's the truth.
[00:25:22] And the lies, the orphan thinking the truth can't live alongside that lie. It has to evict it.
[00:25:31] I pray every lie will be evicted from your mind. In the name of Jesus.
[00:25:37] He's a providing father.
[00:25:39] Matthew 6 says, look at the birds of the air.
[00:25:43] They don't sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them.
[00:25:50] Are you not much more valuable than they?
[00:25:55] He's a loving father, a providing father. He's a protecting father.
[00:25:59] Come on. Psalm 91 says, he will cover you with his feathers, and under his wings you will find refuge.
[00:26:09] His faithfulness will be your shield and your rampart.
[00:26:15] He looks after you because he's a loving father, a providing father and a protecting father.
[00:26:23] He is a correcting father. And this is a bit more difficult for us.
[00:26:30] You know, when kids go through that terrible two stage, you know what that's about, don't you? It's not parenting struggles so much. It feels like it. It's that the child they've had right from birth, everybody stands around their cot going, oh, he's the most amazing child in the whole world.
[00:26:49] And it feels like the whole of life revolves around their existence.
[00:26:55] And this child, everything is for them. They cry, they get fed, they cry, they get their nappy change. It's like, me, me, me, me.
[00:27:04] And then they begin to run around and bump into things. And there's other kids and they've got the toy that they want. But the thing is, this world revolves around me. And you've got my toy, so give it to me now. And the parent says, no.
[00:27:18] What?
[00:27:21] What? How dare you say that? This world exists for me and this child is learning boundaries, community, responsibilities, and they don't like it.
[00:27:36] But if you don't teach them that as a parent, you are failing because you bring up the most naive monster into this world, that they spend the rest of their days arrogantly not caring about others.
[00:27:53] It's part of our responsibility as parents to correct, to discipline.
[00:27:59] It's an expression of love.
[00:28:03] And we have a correcting father.
[00:28:07] Psalm 3 says, My son, do not despise the Lord's discipline.
[00:28:13] Do not resent his rebuke, because the Lord disciplines those he loves.
[00:28:19] As a father, the son delights in.
[00:28:24] He is a correcting father.
[00:28:27] And it's not because he's against you.
[00:28:30] See, if you've got an orphan mindset and God says, no. It's like, oh, no, he doesn't love me anymore.
[00:28:37] He doesn't give me what I want.
[00:28:40] Stroppy teenage kid.
[00:28:44] And we should be a mature son of God.
[00:28:48] And I've seen stroppy teenagers leave Jesus church, walk out, give up on God because God didn't give them what he wanted.
[00:28:57] And they don't realize he was loving them with something bigger and better.
[00:29:05] He's a forgiving father.
[00:29:08] As a father has compassion on his children, so the Lord has compassion on those who fear him.
[00:29:13] He's a guiding father. He leads us.
[00:29:17] Isaiah 30 says, Whether you turn to the right or to the left, your ears will hear a voice behind you saying, this is the way.
[00:29:25] Walk in it.
[00:29:27] He guides us.
[00:29:31] He's a present father.
[00:29:37] One of the toughest things as a busy dad over the years is I'm not sure if I've always been present enough, tried my best.
[00:29:49] You know, after a long day on the road, you come home and you're shattered and you really could do with putting your feet up. But you say, hey, kids, let's go and play football outside. And you do your best.
[00:30:02] My best isn't always the best, but God's best is always the best.
[00:30:12] And he's always present.
[00:30:15] You've got no absenteeism with God.
[00:30:18] Whether you feel him or not, he's present.
[00:30:25] So, church, this thinking, can we please call time?
[00:30:35] The lies that we are orphans, can we do that?
[00:30:41] Can we serve an eviction notice right now on every lie that's infiltrated our thinking, can we call time on that and say, I'm inviting truth into my mind, and the truth is I'm loved, I'm clothed, I'm embraced, I'm kissed, I'm given authority, and I'm his son and daughter.
[00:31:09] Let's pray together.
[00:31:17] Heavenly Father, I thank you that you say in your word that we will know the truth and the truth will liberate us, set us free.
[00:31:31] And I know that the lies can feel strong and powerful when we've lived in partnership with them for so many years.
[00:31:41] But I thank you for the truth.
[00:31:46] We are loved, we are embraced, we are covered, we are given authority, and we are sons.
[00:32:01] And in the name of Jesus, I pray that that truth will move into our minds and into our hearts and will liberate us.
[00:32:13] So I rebuke every orphan mindset and the expressions, the timidity that is caused in the body of Christ, the shame that it's created the people earning their way to favor the significance of things in our life as opposed to relationships.
[00:32:38] We invite you, Lord.
[00:32:40] Come and fill us with truth.
[00:32:47] And I pray for liberty now.
[00:32:53] Pray that in these next few reflective moments, it will be like you will know a picture of the heavenly father running to you and throwing his arms around you, kissing you.
[00:33:08] Isn't that the most beautiful thing we can know in this life?
[00:33:15] Our worship is not singing songs. Our worship is our utter response to that embrace and that kiss. It's like, wow.
[00:33:26] Wow. There's no one like you, God.
[00:33:28] No one's loved us like you've loved us.
[00:33:31] No one's covered us like you cover us.
[00:33:35] That's our worship. It's our response to his truth, to his love, to his ways.
[00:33:41] It's all that we are exposed to, all that he is.
[00:33:52] I don't know if anybody here doesn't know Jesus this morning. This is not just a gospel talk today. But if you're here and you think, I never think I could ever become a Christian, do you know it's not about your earning, it's about God's love. And he runs after you now, chases after you.
[00:34:09] And if you want to stop and say, okay, I let you get hold of me and I let you hug me and I let you love me and I let you forgive me, and I'll let you lead me and I'll let you be the person that I'm going to follow the rest of my life, and I'm going to get my value from your love of me. If you want to give your life to Jesus this morning and stop and receive his embrace for the first time or maybe to come back to him, would you just lift your hand where you are?
[00:34:34] When I've seen it, I'll just lead you in a prayer.
[00:34:40] Maybe everybody's done this here, I don't know. But if you haven't, this is a good morning to do it.
[00:34:46] Come on. One last time. Anybody want to make that decision for the first time or to come back to God? Just lift your hands where you are.
[00:34:55] Lord Jesus, I pray for this beautiful community.
[00:35:02] May we be a community of sons and daughters, and may we bring others into the family.
[00:35:11] May the sound of our party cause there to be many inquisitive ears in this community of Newton Abbott.
[00:35:19] Lord, I pray that as we move and relocate into Stover, Lord, I pray that the reputation not of what the church does, but the reputation of how God is working in our lives will be more and more attractive to more and more people.
[00:35:37] And we pray that Newton Abbott will be saved in the name of Jesus.
[00:35:41] Pray that every lie that's in every heart and life, pray for all those lies that many people think, I can never go to church. I'll burn, burn up.
[00:35:50] I'm not good enough. I pray God that there will be a truth that will eradicate those lies in this community. And you will use us, your hands and feet, to be able to go into this community and to be proponents of truth.
[00:36:12] Say after me again with you. I am a child of God.
[00:36:17] And again, I am a child of God, repeating that this week might be a great blessing to you.
[00:36:25] I am a child of God. Hallelujah.
[00:36:28] So, Lord, I pray your rich blessing upon this precious community in the name of Jesus and all God's people said, Amen. Amen.
