The Walk of the Walking Wounded

Last week I showed you on the map that the Apostle Paul had three missionary journeys, and on his second missionary journey, he started out from Antioch and thought that he was gonna be going into what was at that time called Asia—not the Asia we know today in terms of China and India and the Far East, but Asia, the Roman province, which is now modern-day Turkey. But the Lord had other plans and actually brought him further west, up to the northern part of Greece, the first time into Europe, where he brought the gospel to Philippi. And then he eventually came down to Thessalonica—and that’s the book that we’re in—then into Athens and Corinth, and continued on in that particular mission.

Remember I shared with you that when Paul arrived in Thessalonica, he would have been like the walking wounded, because he had been beaten, he had been tortured, he was imprisoned in Philippi. And so he still would have had a lot of bruises on his body, but he showed up in Thessalonica, shared the gospel for probably three or four weeks, several people came to faith, and now he wanted to follow up with them. He wanted to send them a letter to encourage them several months later in their continued relationship with Christ.

It’s just remarkable when we think about this map and all the journeys of Paul. Scholars estimate that Paul probably traveled over 10,000 miles in his missionary lifetime—over 16,000 kilometers—and that’s just conservative estimates; probably it was even more than that. To give you an idea, that would be like walking from Halifax to Vancouver two and a half times, or walking from New York City to Los Angeles four times! Paul did a lot of that on foot. Some of it was over the seas, the Mediterranean, but a lot of that on foot. So Paul was just relentless in sharing the message of Christ and really wanting to make sure people were grounded. And that’s what I’m talking about today: how do you stay grounded in this relationship with Jesus Christ?

Now here’s a little note that I want you to catch is that our feelings may move us, but it’s our faith that anchors us. Feelings are important—they may move us, inspire us—but ultimately it’s our faith that anchors us.

Illustrations/Stories: Keeping Your Eye on the Objective

Last week I shared with you some of the pictures Karen and I had from Greece and some of the places where Paul had traveled, and that was wonderful. But a few of you mentioned to me on the way out that you were a little disappointed because I didn’t share one of the other bucket fillers I’ve had in recent months: I actually got to the final round of the Masters! Yeah, some of you are just like—okay, so I don’t want anybody to leave unhappy, I just wanted to make sure. I didn’t mention last week, but I got a little picture here.

In the goodness of God, I got to the final round of the Masters with my brother-in-law a couple months ago, and it was just unbelievable. It was a real spiritual experience going to the Masters. Come on now, just look at the beauty. You know, the good things we enjoy now are just a sneak preview of what the new heaven and the new earth will be. So there’s gonna be golfing, I’m sure, courses like Augusta in heaven, right? I mean, any course that has a section called “Amen Corner”—the 11th, 12th, and 13th hole is Amen Corner—that sounds pretty spiritual to me, right?

But you know, one of the takeaways I want to share with you about that is: in order to excel to win the Masters, or a great tournament like that, golfers need to understand that feelings are good, but you need to keep your eye on the ultimate objective. Because some days you’re going to have bad weather, some days you’re going to have bad shots, some days you’re just going to have a bad day. And you need to be resilient and regroup in order to stay grounded on the focus of the ultimate objective of really winning and thriving. And that same principle applies to our faith.

The Three Motivations of Paul

So let me ask you, why was Paul, as he wrote this letter, why was he so concerned to see the believers there continue in their faith? There are three reasons:

First, he genuinely desired what was best for them. Paul was the ultimate encourager, and he selflessly wanted to bring out the best in others. Moving on to chapter 2, verses 18 and 19, Paul says, “You can’t imagine how much I missed you. I, Paul, I tried over and over. I wanted to come back and be with you.” But notice he says here, “but Satan thwarted us each time.”

Interesting, right? Paul was very aware that he had a spiritual enemy who was trying to thwart the purpose of the gospel. And we’re not sure how Satan, who’s the adversary who opposes the activity of God, the forward movement of the gospel, did it. I don’t know if it was through bad weather that he thwarted Paul, or through sickness, or more likely it was through roadblocks, through persecution, where there were attempts to sabotage the activity of Paul along the way. But Paul said, “You know, that’s why we haven’t got back to you.” Then he goes on to say, “So who do you think we’re going to be proud of when our Master Jesus appears, if it’s not you? You’re our pride and joy.” Paul is just gushing with emotion, with love, with affection, and just celebrating the way that the believers there are standing strong in their faith. And so he wants to bring out the best in them.

The second reason he followed up with them is he knew that the attacks of the enemy were real. He knew that not only was the enemy attacking him, but the reality is that if you’re a follower of Jesus, I want you to know you have an enemy. And he wants to tempt you and discourage you and challenge you to not remain grounded in your faith. Paul goes on in chapter 3 and verse 5: “For this reason, when I could stand it no longer, I sent to find out about your faith. I was afraid that in some way the tempter”—another word that is used here for the devil, he’s the tempter—”had tempted you, and that our labors might have been in vain.”

I just want to encourage you, if you’re a follower of Jesus today, one of the most important disciplines in your relationship with Christ is you need to learn to listen to the voice of the Shepherd and not to the voice of the enemy. And there’s a difference. You see, the Shepherd wants to whisper life-giving truth into your life, and you can trust him, but the enemy of our soul wants to whisper in ways that will lead us astray and destroy and distract us.

I’ve found over the years that there are three typical ways that the devil works in the lives of believers:

• Through doubt, where we begin to doubt the goodness of God, kind of like Eve doubted that God’s plan was right, and we begin to listen to the lies. Jesus said that Satan is the father of all lies. The antidote to the lies of the enemy is truth—we need to overcome his lies and replace lies with truth.
• Through discouragement. The enemy cannot take our salvation, he can’t rob us of our salvation, but he can rob us of the joy of our salvation if we’re not careful.
• Through discord. I’ve seen this oftentimes—that we give the devil a foothold through unresolved bitterness and lacking forgiveness in some kind of relationship, and Satan gets a foothold because of unresolved anger and bitterness.

But the good news is we don’t want to be afraid of him. The Bible says, “Greater is he that is in us than he is in the world.” We just need to be aware. We need to have discernment about this reality.

The third reason why Paul wrote to them is that he understood the incredible importance of their mission to the world. What was at stake in them standing firm is that they were to be a beacon of light and hope, sharing the good news of Jesus, being the hands and feet of Jesus in the world around them—a world that desperately is in need of hearing the good news. And so in chapter 1 and verse 8, Paul said, “The Lord’s message it rang out from you, not only in Macedonia, not only in the province in which you reside”—and Thessalonica was the capital city of Macedonia—”but also the southern province of Achaea, that’s all around. People are hearing; your faith in God has become known everywhere.” Paul wants that to continue to happen—for them to shine the light locally, regionally, and globally for the cause of Christ. And we have that same mission today, and it’s very, very important. The stakes are very high. That’s why we want to be a people who are standing firm.

I don’t know about you, but if you’ve been following the trajectory of the hit series called The Chosen over the last few years, it’s been absolutely incredible the global reach of this multi-season series that’s basically chronicling the life of Jesus and the men and women who follow Jesus. It’s gonna be going into season six this fall, and season seven, which might be the last season, next Easter—just incredible. A few months ago, they actually broke a record: The Chosen is now in the Guinness Book of World Records for being the most translated streaming series ever, into over 125 languages. Can you imagine that? Yeah, this is good news. It actually surpassed Baywatch and surpassed SpongeBob SquarePants as well, by a long shot, right? Jesus more popular than Baywatch—that’s a good thing!

But the producer of the show said, “Listen, we’re not just stopping at 125 languages, we actually are working to get to 600 languages that represents 95% of the people living on planet Earth today.” And they said the reason they want to work to that objective is because the message of Jesus is so powerful and so needed in the world around us. And that’s what motivated Paul, and that’s why the early church—he’s saying—you guys need to be on mission and stand strong.

The Trajectory of Our Culture: Tourist, Immigrant, or Exile

If we’re going to live missionally today in our very secular culture, we need to sort of have a missionary mindset, right? Because the culture around us has changed, and so we need to understand how to be missional in that environment. There are three options:

1. We can choose to live like a tourist. If you’ve ever been on a tour and you’re part of a tour group, you go visit someplace, you get out of the bus, you’re all together, you eat your meals—you’re just hanging out, but you don’t really interact with the locals. You have minimal influence and relationships, and not a lot of proximity with where you are, because you’re just there temporarily. Sometimes Christians and the church have allowed themselves to live more like a tourist, with very minimal proximity to the world around them. So that’s not a good option.
2. Some believers can choose to be like an immigrant. I don’t say this in a negative way, because we love immigrants—ultimately, we’re all immigrants in one way or another coming to this part of the world. But the idea here is that we allow ourselves to become so assimilated to the culture, to the values, and to the belief system, that our faith becomes watered down. So there really isn’t anything distinctive about us any longer. We become lukewarm in our faith. We adopt a more progressive view of Christianity that really abandons, in a lot of senses, the major tenets of the faith, and we just sort of fit in with the culture around us. So that’s really not what Jesus envisions for us.
3. Rather, what we’re called to be, if we’re gonna be missional, we need to choose the idea of being an exile. We need to be a people who are living in a culture where we have high proximity yet without compromise. Kind of like Daniel as he lived in a foreign, pagan environment, right? He had high proximity, tremendous influence, and was respected by others who had different worldviews than him, but he also did it without compromising his faith, his belief system, and the way in which he lived to honor God. And that’s how we’re called to be.

The Gaps in Our Faith: Five Ways to Stay Grounded

Here’s the big idea that I came to share with all of us here this morning: The only guarantee that you’re gonna remain grounded tomorrow is to actively invest in your faith today. Let me just say that again. The only way you’re gonna guarantee that you’re gonna remain grounded and steadfast, living this exile missional life for the glory of God—the only way you’re gonna do that is to actively invest in your faith today.

And so I want to share with you five ways that Paul did this, because that was his desire. You notice in 1 Thessalonians 3:10, he says, “Night and day, we pray earnestly for you, asking God to let us see you again to fill the gaps in your faith.” I find that very interesting. What Paul is saying here is that as a spiritual father, as a dad in their lives in the church, he said that all of you have some gaps in your faith. You have some areas where you need wisdom, where you need guidance, where you need insight, where you need habits and character formation to take place in your life. And that’s true for all of us. Do you know what the gaps are in your faith? Do you know some areas? Do you have a growth plan—an intentional growth plan—that will help develop a growing relationship with Jesus Christ so you can live more effectively for Him? Because all of us should. And this is what Paul is really getting at.

Here are five ways we can really remain grounded:

1. Become Amazed by God’s Love

First, become increasingly amazed by the wonder and joy of being deeply loved by God. Paul, as he wrote this letter and was reflecting on what took place when he visited them, notice what he says in chapter 1 and verse 2: “Every time we think of you, we thank God for you. It is clear to us, friends, that God not only loves you…” You hear what he’s saying? He’s talking about their receptivity of the gospel and the realization that they are deeply loved by God. I think there are some of you here today who need to be reminded that no matter what you have done in your life, you are deeply loved by God. He loved you very much, but he also has put his hand on you for something special.

When the message we preached came to you, it wasn’t just words; something happened in you—there was something mystical. What he’s talking about here is the power of the Holy Spirit. He’s talking about regeneration—people who are dead coming alive in Jesus Christ, and coming to really understand with a deep sense of wonder and joy their identity in Christ. In order to stay grounded, you never want to lose your sense of the wonder and joy of being a beloved son or daughter, a child of the Most High God, and that we are children of the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. It’s through what Christ did on the cross for us that we can have forgiveness, purpose, and joy in our life.

Tim Keller brilliantly says that the gospel, the good news, is that I am so sinful that Jesus had to die for me, yet so loved and valued that Jesus was glad to die for me. Amazing—the atoning work of Christ that Jesus did that for you. And so Paul goes on in chapter 2 and verse 13: “We also thank God continually, because when you received the word of God, which you heard from us, you accepted it, not as human word, but as it actually is, the word of God, which is indeed at work in you who believe.” And when you believe and you saturate your heart and your minds with the truth of Scripture, it becomes very, very transformative in your life.

Last week was Father’s Day, and I was thinking about a story that I came across recently about Walt Disney. Several years ago, when Walt’s oldest child, his daughter Diane, was just a little child and she was off to school—she was probably five, six, or seven years old, elementary school—early in the year, people were starting to get to know the names of the kids. One of her friends, when she got introduced to her, stopped for a moment and was just astonished. She looked at her and said, “Are you Diane Disney? Is your father Walt Disney? You know, the Walt Disney? Is that your dad?” Diane was just kind of overcome a little bit, and she very humbly said, “Well, yeah, that’s my dad. My dad is Walt Disney.” Her friend said, “Oh my goodness, your dad is Walt Disney!”

All of a sudden, Diane came to the realization that this humble dad, who read her stories at home and just was very unassuming at home, was actually this brilliant, creative genius who was known by so many people around the world. And so she went home that day, and her dad was sitting there reading the newspaper, and she got his attention. She looked at him and said, “Dad, you never told me that you were Walt Disney.” She gave him a hug and probably wanted his autograph, too. But she had never really lived with a full realization of who her father was.

I wonder if there’s some of us—what would happen if we really began to live with a greater realization of who our Heavenly Father is, and the goodness of the gospel and the grace and mercy that we’ve been singing about today? When we understand what it means to be a deeply beloved son or daughter of the Most High God, it becomes transformative in our lives.

2. Turn Away from Idols

Second, turn away from any idols that dishonor God. Again, Paul, as he went to all these different cities in the Greco-Roman world, found them steeped in idolatry. And so in chapter 1 and verse 9, Paul said they tell “how you turned to God from idols” to do what? “To serve the living and true God.” In other words, idols are not living and they’re not really true, but God is the only one who’s living and who’s true that you can really count on. So they said, “you turned from these idols… and to wait for his son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, Jesus who rescues us from the coming wrath.”

What Paul is saying here, and we need to understand this, is idolatry was not only something that was rampant in the Old Testament, and not only something that was rampant as the early church was getting started throughout the Greco-Roman world, but idolatry is something that also is very rampant in our culture as well, although it may express itself in different ways. An idol is anytime we take a good thing and we turn it into the ultimate thing—the object of our attention and our allegiance and our affection—and we begin to idolize that. And so we think about things like idolizing maybe our careers, or our kids, or technology, or food, or sex, or sports, or all of these things that we can do.

Tim Keller very brilliantly says, “Anything can serve as a counterfeit God, especially the best things in life.” Think about that. Anything can serve as a counterfeit God because an idol just displaces the supremacy of God on the throne of our lives, including the best things in life.

If you were in the ancient world, the Roman Greco culture, they had all kinds of idols. They took a good thing, which was beauty, and deified it into the goddess Aphrodite. They took the gift of reason and intellect and deified it in the worship of Athena. They took a good thing in terms of money and economic success and deified it in the god Artemis. Or they took partying and celebration and revelry and deified it in the god Bacchus. And in our culture here today, we’re swimming in a culture where there’s idols everywhere. What are some of the popular idols today in our world? Things like image—the approval and attention of other people. Maybe it’s fame, or success, or money, or possessions—certain things that we possess. Or maybe it’s work, or romance in some relationship, or sexual behavior, those types of things. Or some people worship their children in an unhealthy way, or reason, or ideology. We live in a culture where there are some people that really begin to worship a political party or an ideology, and that becomes the sum total of where their time and their attention goes. Or maybe it’s hobbies, or security, or retirement. But the idea is that idolatry is allowing our hearts to be captivated by something that displaces the love, the affection, and the allegiance that belongs to God. And so the Apostle John in 1 John 5:21 said, “Dear children, keep yourselves from idols.” Make sure, because they’re rampant all around where you are.

3. Embrace Local Church Community

Third, fully embrace the gift of community through the local church. Paul was unable to get back to Thessalonica, and he worried about them, but he said, “Listen, you guys are not alone. You don’t need me. You’re not alone, because you have a family.” Several times throughout the book he says that you are brothers and you are sisters—you’re there to encourage and build up and strengthen one another.

Then later in the book, in chapter 5, he says, “Dear brothers and sisters,”—there’s that phrase again—”honor those who are your leaders in the Lord’s work. They work hard among you and they give you spiritual guidance.” The idea here is that every one of us needs accountability. We need mentors and teachers and pastors who are providing us with spiritual guidance in our lives. That’s what Paul is saying. He said, “Show them respect and wholehearted love because of their work, and live peacefully with everyone.”

That’s why, if you’re new around here, I want to remind you that there are three relational environments that we really believe in at the core of who we are as a community of faith. We say that if you want to thrive spiritually, everyone needs a row (which is weekly worship on Sunday, making that a priority in your life), everyone needs a circle (which is a small group, your life group of people who are praying for you, encouraging you, and doing life together), and everyone needs a chair (which is building some quiet time into your life through the week where you can spend time with the Lord). That’s very, very important.

4. Pursue Holiness in Sexuality and Work

Fourth, eagerly pursue holiness in your sexuality and your work life. Paul for several chapters celebrates them, gushing with love and affection, but then he pivots in chapter 4 and says, “Now listen, you guys are pleasing to God already, but I want to challenge you, I want to encourage you at the heart of love that there are some areas of your life that you need to really please God more and more.” In other words, never stop growing. And he specifically speaks about sex and work.

Notice what he says, picking up in chapter 4, verse 2: “For you remember what we taught you by the authority of the Lord Jesus Christ.” Paul said, “This isn’t just my little teaching and ideas; this is based on the authority of the risen Christ.” He says, “God’s will for you”—we often say, well, what is God’s will for my life? Well, in the New Testament, God’s will primarily focuses on his moral will, the things he reveals to us to live in—he said, “God’s will for you is to be holy.” Some translations translate that word sanctified—to commit your life to be set apart, to be distinct from the culture and the way they live their lives, to be set apart to God. This is an ongoing process of becoming more and more like Jesus Christ in the way we think and the way we live our life.

Then he says specifically: “So stay away from all sexual sin.” For Paul, when he says stay away from all sexual sin, what he has in mind is that your sexual partner should be your marital partner only; that’s specifically the context of what he is saying here. And then he goes on and says that each of you will “control his own body and live in holiness and honor, not in lustful passion like the pagans who do not know God and his ways… God has called us to live holy lives and not impure lives.” In other words, we should live our lives based on love, not on lust, which was rampant in the highly licentious culture that Paul was living in at that particular time. He said, “Therefore, anyone who refuses to live by these rules is not disobeying human teaching, but is rejecting God who gives you his Holy Spirit in you.” The Spirit of God is a Holy Spirit, and it’s not in our own strength, but it’s in the transformative power of the Holy Spirit that our thinking and our behavior can be transformed to really live this kind of life.

You need to understand that Paul knew this whole letter would have been read by the whole church in one setting. They’re sitting around and hearing these words together. He’s not speaking to the culture, he’s speaking to those who are followers of Jesus. F.F. Bruce, N.T. Wright, and a host of other New Testament scholars who are experts in ancient history point out that Paul knew the whole culture in the Greco-Roman world basically viewed sex as an appetite to be satisfied, to be appeased. There were no real sexual boundaries there. It was also a very patriarchal society, so it was very male-dominated. It was not uncommon for men who were married to also have a mistress on the side. It was not uncommon for some people who could afford a slave to purchase a slave and take advantage of them for sexual favors, because slaves had no rights. Prostitution was widespread and rampant—you could get a prostitute on the street corner or in a temple, and the cost of getting a prostitute was basically the cost of a loaf of bread; it was very, very inexpensive. To make matters even worse, the ages of some of the slaves and prostitutes were not regulated, so there was a lot of child sexual abuse that was rampant in the culture in the first century.

Paul is writing and saying that as you grow and learn more about the Christian faith in this licentious culture that you’re living in, pursue a life based on love, not lust. And of course, there’s not a lot of difference really between the culture then and the culture that we’re navigating today. Many of you can go back to the 60s—remember the idea of the 60s was all about “make love, not war,” leading into this whole sexual revolution in our culture today with Woodstock. And then we look at the trajectory of the last number of years since the supposed sexual revolution, which was supposed to lead to freedom and not enslavement, and yet we think about the confusion, the loneliness, the deception, the brokenness, and the human misery often associated with what’s happening. We think about the pornification of our culture today, the rise in sex trafficking, the devastating effect that affairs have on families and homes, and the alarming rates of child abuse, sexual assaults, and sexual addiction. Paul is saying in the midst of all this that there’s a better way.

Several years ago, a pastor by the name of John Mark Comer wrote a book, and he lived at the time in Portland, Oregon—which is not a Bible belt, but a very secular city. He wrote about the lies that we often live out when we don’t understand these things, and he says this: “I’m a pastor in a city with no sexual boundaries. I deal with the fallout of Woodstock on a regular basis. I’m not angry; I’m sad. I care about the damage in people’s souls, especially the vulnerable.” And then he says, “The liberation is starting to look more and more like enslavement.”

But friends, don’t take my word for it, or the word of another evangelical pastor like me. Take the word of this lady whose picture is on the screen: this is Louise Perry, a young, secular journalist in the UK from an agnostic background. She has done a lot of research in the social sciences on the massively painful impact of the supposed sexual revolution on the hearts and lives of so many people in our culture today. A couple of years ago, she actually wrote a best-selling book titled The Case Against the Sexual Revolution. What’s interesting is that the image on the cover of this book is a box of Kleenex, and it really speaks to the damaged hearts, the damaged lives, and the damaged souls that have resulted from this experiment with freedom that has led to so much pain and enslavement on so many levels.

You know what her solution is? Again, she’s not writing as an evangelical pastor, but the solution that she is advising is this: that we need a counter-sexual revolution. She said, “I’m going to propose an alternative form of sexual culture, one that recognizes that human beings are real people, invested with real value and dignity. It’s time for a sexual counter-revolution.” Interesting, isn’t it? It sounds more and more like the timeless wisdom we find in Scripture that Paul is advocating for the disciples as they grow in their relationship with Christ.

Paul basically reiterated very briefly what we see throughout the New Testament and the scriptures:

• Sex is a gift. The sexual revolution didn’t actually begin in the 60s; it actually began in the Garden of Eden when God created Adam and Eve, and when Eve was brought to Adam, he said, “Wow, God, this is amazing! Thank you, what a gift!”
• We’re all sexually broken. Every single one of us is sexually broken in one way or another, and we all desperately need God’s forgiveness. Whether in our thoughts or our deeds, we have not always lived on an ethic of love, but rather an ethic of lust and all the damage that comes from that. I think of Jesus’ response to the woman who was caught in adultery: he said, “I don’t condemn you either. Go and sin no more.” There’s a better way to live, free from shame and free from brokenness.
• Real freedom is found by living within God’s loving boundaries. Following and learning more about the boundaries that God provides, which are meant to be a source of goodness and wholeness in our lives and in the lives of others, allows us to honor other people and have a real culture of honor.

Then he goes on and says: “Make it your goal to live a quiet life, minding your own business and working with your hands.” In other words, don’t be lazy, don’t be unmotivated, but actually understand that hard work is a good thing. “Get a job, just as we instructed you before, then people who are not believers will respect the way you live and you will not need to be dependent upon other people.” Paul says to pursue pleasing God in your sexuality and also in your career—work hard, don’t be lazy, be responsible, be a good witness to others so that you can pay your way through life and, ultimately, so you can be generous with other people.

5. Cultivate a Life of Gratitude

Fifth, cultivate a life of genuine gratitude. There’s one other verse where Paul says, do you want to know God’s will? It’s not only to live a holy life, but secondly, it’s to be a person of gratitude. In 1 Thessalonians 5:17-18, he said, “Never stop praying and be thankful in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you who are in Christ Jesus.” Not to be thankful for every circumstance, because some circumstances are very evil and painful and not good, but in the midst of them there’s always a reason to be thankful.

I’ve found in my own journey that one of the most important habits to cultivate on an ongoing basis, which really lifts my spirit, gives me the right renewing perspective on life, and helps me stay grounded, is to build gratitude into my life. Every day there are at least two or three things we can be grateful for. Every week on my Sabbath on Monday, I always take some time to review the previous week and to write down in a journal some remarkable ways—some ordinary yet extraordinary ways—God has blessed me. We’re blessed when we bless other people, and so this is what Paul is writing about to help us really stay strong and stay grounded in our faith.

Closing Challenge: The ABCs of Faith

The only really firm foundation that we can stand upon is the foundation of our Lord and our Savior Jesus Christ, and the God who is always so faithful to us. Friends, here’s the reality: becoming a Christian is really not all that complicated in some ways. It’s kind of like the ABCs:

• A is to Admit your need for Christ, your need for forgiveness, and your need for Jesus to take the wheel of your life.
• B is to Believe in Jesus and his atoning work on the cross—that he came and he paid a debt for us and he is our Lord and Savior. There’s no one like Jesus.
• C is to Commit, where you actually commit your life to Jesus, to be the Lord of your life.

I pray some of you, if you’ve never made that decision, will make that decision today. And I pray for those of you who have made that decision, that it’s not just an end point, but an ongoing daily discipline to re-surrender your life in some of the ways that I’ve shared here today to make sure that you stay grounded. Let’s just stand now as we continue to open up our hearts and worship the Lord.