Christ's Mission

God's Ultimate Purpose: His Glory

What has been God's purpose from eternity past, that will continue on to eternity future? From the creation of Adam and Eve, to the authoring of his word, from the Exodus to the salvation in Christ, to the future consummation of all things, when Christ will write every wrong and establish his eternal Kingdom.

What has been God's aim in all of it? What is God's goal? What is the ultimate purpose of all things? God's aim and his main objective in everything is his glory. God's glory is the end goal.

It sounds simple, but it's a big thing. In fact, God's glory is a topic in a reality that we will never reach the end of. His radiance, his beauty, his majesty, his worth, the endless wealth of his wisdom and knowledge. You and I will spend all of eternity gazing into the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ, and we will never reach the end of it. We will just know more and more of it moment by moment.

And we long for that day. But we all know that on this side of heaven, the glory of God gets obscured. Things overshadow it and overtake it. They get in the way. They distract us. In fact, in some places like the place we prayed for this morning, Afghanistan, you might think, where is the glory of God in a place like that? Where's the hope to see the glory of God in those people?

Yet God's glory is made known in all of creation. That's his purpose. Psalm 19 says, the heavens declare the glory of God. The mere existence of all that you see in the natural world around you is showing you, at least in small part, God's glory. Revelation 4:11 tells us that this is God's aim in creation: "Worthy are you, oh Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, why? For you created all things and by your will they existed and were created."

Man was made in God's image, to reflect him and to mirror his glory in some small part, because his glory is the end goal of all things. God is even described as jealous for his glory, for his praise and his name to be hallowed. We don't often think of jealousy as a good thing though, do we? To our human ears, when we think about this on a human level, we think jealousy? The people that I know that are jealous are envious, and greedy, and prideful, and self-centered. But God is described as jealous.

In Exodus 34:14, as God repeats the Ten Commandments, he said, "You shall worship no other God, for the Lord whose name is jealous is a jealous God." Deuteronomy is littered as God renews the covenant with his people, statements of God's jealousy for his glory and for his people, that his glory would be made known through them. And calling for obedience, Joshua, in Joshua 24:19-20, it says the same, "The Lord your God is a jealous God."

God wants his glory. And his jealousy for his glory is not a bad thing or a wicked thing by any stretch of the imagination. Because for God's glory to be made known and experienced, for you to come into contact with the glory of God and have fellowship with him, is the greatest thing in the universe. The greatest good is the glory of God and our experience of it.

This is why the Westminster Confession of Faith says, what is the chief end of man? To glorify God and enjoy him forever. God's ultimate purpose is his glory, and our ultimate purpose as created beings in his image is to enjoy and worship him always. God continually seeks to protect his own honor. He wants, he has a zeal to preserve this preciousness of his glory.

And God's purpose in redemption is to make his glory known. Revelation 5 is a picture where the lamb who appeared to be slain is worthy. And why is he worthy? Because he has redeemed a people from every tribe and nation and tongue to himself. Philippians 2 tells us that Christ humbled himself to the point of death, even death on a cross, redeeming sinners, for what purpose? That every tongue should bow and every knee confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. God is committed to the cause of making his name great.

God's Purpose and the Church

How is he accomplishing that purpose today? Ephesians 3, you can turn there if you'd like, I'm going to turn in my Bible there, tells us how God's wisdom and glory are made known today. Ephesians 3, starting in verse 7, says this: "Of this gospel I was made a minister according to the gift of God's grace, which was given me by the working of his power. To me, though I am the very least of all the saints, this grace was given to preach to the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ." There is a summary of the gospel to you, the unsearchable riches of Christ.

"And to bring to light for everyone what is the plan of the mystery hidden for ages in God, who created all things, so that through the church," the church, a gathering of broken, lost sinners who have simply been saved by Christ, "that through the church the manifold wisdom of God might be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places." How is God's glory being made known today? Through the riches of Christ, the glory of the gospel, proclaimed where? In and through the church, this glorious wisdom of God is made known.

The Church's Mission: Matthew 28

So God's glory is to be our ultimate aim. It drives what everything we do. It's our ultimate desire and Lord willing, as a church, it shapes us more than anything else. Matthew 28 answers the question for us, what does it look like practically today to have the glory of God as our aim? What does it look like to work to the glory, for the glory of God to be known by all? To gather worshipers to Christ, to be involved in what will be consummated in that Revelation 5 picture of all of God's people being gathered to him.

What specific instructions does Christ give us to accomplish his purposes of redemption and his glory in the world today? Matthew 28 is the simple answer. Matthew 28 is Christ's mission for his church. Much has been made of these few verses here, in verses 18 through 20, and for good reason. Some people say these are Jesus's final words, so they are his most important words. But Jesus has a number of different kinds of final words. It's not that any words of Jesus outweigh other words that Christ spoke. But there are things in this text that point us to the fact that this is what Christ wants for us. If we're going to aim ourselves in one direction, and if one thing is going to define everything we do as a church, it's going to be this, this mission.

As we consider this Great Commission, we're going to see number one, that it's a mission for the church. Two, that this is a mission to help others follow Jesus, to make disciples. And three, that this is a mission with Christ.

This Is a Mission for the Church

Number one, look at verse 18. This is a mission for the church. I want you to look at those two words. It says that Jesus came and said to them, "all authority" in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Look at those two words, all authority. In my mind, Matthew 28 hearkens back to Matthew 16, where Jesus has said, "I give you the keys of the kingdom. Go and do my will. Whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven. Whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven." Keys, we talked about last week, are authority. Jesus, in Revelation 1:18, is given the keys to death and Hades, proclaiming his victory over sin and death, shows that that's true. He has authority over them. He gives us the keys of his kingdom, that Christ has inaugurated in his death and resurrection, the keys of his kingdom, authority to act on his behalf. And here he says, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me," and then there's a therefore. In light of Christ's authority, we go and do something. And he has authorized us to do this, to make disciples.

But who is to be working towards this endeavor and this aim? Is this authority something, and this command to make disciples, something that Christ gives to some in the church? To the 11 disciples who were there and those who knew them? Is this something he gives to pastors and elders? Is this a command given to missionaries who are going to go to far and distant places? Well, the answer to all of those questions would be yes and more. This is a command for all Christians. This is a command given to the whole church. It's a collective endeavor. This mission to make disciples throughout all the earth, disciples of all nations, is not something that any one of us could accomplish on our own. The church universal must be working towards this end, and each faithful local church must have this goal as its heartbeat, make disciples.

And so our church here, and every worship service, we have an aim. Again, it falls under the banner of making much of Christ and his glory. But in all things, we have an aim and we have a driving mission that Christ has given us. This morning our goal is to make disciples. When we go from here and we live our lives throughout the week, our goal is to make disciples of Christ and to follow him faithfully as disciples ourselves. Our goal at Wednesday night Bible study is to make disciples. Our goal at Wednesday night prayer is to make disciples. Our goal even at a park night, where we have no particular agenda to preach or teach or worship in an obvious way, but to have fellowship together as Christians is to be making disciples. Everything we do as a church is going to be centered around this aim. If it's missing, we're off the mark.

These are the marching orders that Christ has given us. This is what he's authorized us to do. This is what Christ commands. Sometimes we do take this passage though, not to be a call to all of the Christian life and all the church does, but to be a command to go and to do big and great things for Christ in far and distant lands. Friends, let's be very clear, this command includes that. There should be some who go where the gospel has never been proclaimed, or where there are few Christians, or where there is great need. And they should go and give their lives to the church in those places and preach the gospel there and make disciples there. But the "go" is not the command. Your English translation might make it look like the "go" is the command, because it says, "Go therefore and make disciples." It's like that first word right there. But this word is really the idea of "as you are going." Jesus speaks this to his disciples and he says, "As you're going, make disciples because of the authority that I have."

Wherever you are, this is for you. You can ask yourself the simple question, where am I going in life? You could ask yourself the very simple, direct question, where am I going today? The mission follows you. The mission is still your aim, to make disciples, to make much of Christ, proclaiming his name and helping others follow him. No one is excluded from this commission that Christ gives to his church. It is for the church collective, and it is for each individual member. So what does it mean to make disciples?

This Is a Mission to Help Others Follow Jesus

If this is a mission for the church and for each of us, we need to understand, secondly, point number two, that this is a mission to help others follow Jesus. This is a mission to help others follow Jesus. Verse 19, "Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you."

The best, simplest definition of what it means to make disciples is helping someone else follow Jesus, to do them spiritual good. What is a disciple though? This word "disciple" is this word that Jesus used of his followers, mathetes. It simply means someone who is a learner, a follower, a pupil underneath a teacher. It's not the kind of learning that only includes head knowledge. It is the kind of learning that includes real experience and real following and real obedience. This word is not, learn information and put it in your brain. This word "disciple" is truly follow after. This is why learner and follower are two parts of the same definition. This is why in Ephesians 4, when Paul is correcting the Ephesians, he tells them, "This is not the way you learned Christ." They were behaving at times, and we do as well, in ways that are not befitting of a Christian, not true to type of our new nature. So he said, "This is not the way you learned Christ. This is not the way you've come to follow him, and it's not what it looks like to follow him."

A disciple is someone who's committed to their teacher, committed to his words, committed to his instructions and his ways, who listens intently and follows and obeys. And you see that in exactly how Jesus describes making disciples in the text. So if you look at verse 19, the way that this shakes out as a sentence is this: Make disciples of all nations. Make disciples is the command. It's a verb. What follows it, you'll notice, is baptizing and teaching. And here in the English, it really helps us to see baptizing and teaching, because it tells us that baptizing and teaching are the way we make disciples. They're called participles. So there's a big command, make disciples, and the way that Jesus explains this is there's two ways he wants us to follow that: baptizing and teaching others to obey him. If we think about baptizing and teaching, we can think of the beginning of the Christian walk, identifying with Christ, and the continual endeavor to follow Christ together. All of that is included in making disciples. Discipleship encompasses the entire reality of the Christian life.

From your first experience of a gospel proclamation and that seed being planted and used by the Spirit, all the way to the very end of your life when you will hear, "Well done, good and faithful servant. Enter into the joy of your master." Baptizing and teaching. I want you to think of the purpose of baptism in the early church for a moment. Think of the book of Acts. In Acts 2, the gospel is proclaimed by Peter. There, in that, in Peter's presence, are thousands of people speaking many different languages from many different places. They hear the gospel preached. The disciples are given supernatural power to preach the gospel in their own tongue. And what happens? 3,000 people are saved and what? Baptized. They understand the reality of the gospel and Christ as their only savior. They cast all their hope on him, trusting in him for salvation, and naturally are baptized. Baptism in New Testament times was a common practice to outwardly identify yourself with something. Baptism, when someone is baptized, is when they are outwardly identifying themselves with Christ. They are saying, I am no longer the world's, but I am Christ's. I have been buried with him, you see that picture in baptism, and raised to new life in Christ. Baptism pictures our union with Christ in his life, death, burial, and resurrection. The fact that we've been joined to him and separately, in all of his redemptive work on our behalf.

Baptism is a natural thing for a Christian to undergo. In fact, most often, it's the most first, it's the first and most obvious way that we obey Christ in walking in obedience. Because this baptizing is a command for us to be baptized as Christians. If you come across a Christian who says, "Oh no, I don't need to be baptized. Baptism's not for me. It's kind of an old thing. It's from the ancient world." You say, "Hold on, hold on, hold on. I don't think you understand Christ's words. Are you with him or not?" Because this is how you make it clear. This is how your faith goes public. The new covenant sign of baptism. No longer with the world, I'm pledging allegiance to Christ. And when you think about this reality of baptism, and you see it all throughout Acts, people are saved and baptized. The gospel shows up, the Spirit confirms it, people profess faith and they're baptized. We rightly should understand that part of making disciples is evangelism. Is finding those who are lost and preaching the gospel to them, so that they would come to know Christ, so that the Lord would use his gospel, his word powerfully, to enliven dead hearts. And so, as a church, we center ourselves so much on the gospel. We preach the gospel and make it central to all we do. On Sunday mornings, you should see the gospel reflected in many of the songs we sing. When someone stands up here in the pulpit, you should expect the gospel and key gospel themes to ever be present. Because Christ is the only savior. And through the proclamation of his gospel is how God has determined that people will hear the word of Christ and be saved by Christ's work.

And so, without fail and with joy, and with gladness and with boldness, we preach Christ. The one who has lived, died, and risen on our behalf, who washes us clean by his blood, and who offers his salvation to all who would trust in him. The gospel's not just for Sunday mornings though, is it? This initial reality of continually proclaiming the gospel is something we do throughout the week. Friends, you are meant to have a gospel-proclaiming life. A life that gets the truth of Jesus out to other people. People will be saved, Lord willing, because they walk in these doors on a Sunday morning and have not known Christ, they hear the gospel preached, they see the evidence of it in the lives of those present here, and they trust in Christ. And the Spirit uses that. But sometimes one of the most effective ways that people come to know Christ is the faithful prayers of their family and friends and the faithful witness of their family and friends, to both display the gospel with your life on a continuous basis, and to preach the gospel, to weave it into conversations, to have spiritual conversations with others, to plant seeds of Christ's life-giving, life-saving work.

And so, the gospel is something, this evangelistic effort is something, that's meant to mark all of our lives, not just our corporate witness. And so we want our relationships with our co-workers, with our friends, with our families, with our children who are in our home, who have yet to come to know Christ, with the Uber driver, or the tow truck that has to pick you up, with the person on the seat next to you in the plane. Friends, where do you find yourself? Where is the "as you are going"? Let's bring the gospel to those places. Now, let's be real for a moment. Does this mean that every conversation and every interaction and every person I accidentally bump into at the store must be a full 30-minute gospel presentation? No. But at a minimum, you should ask yourself, am I being salt and light like Christ commands me? Am I being someone who has good works that can be seen by others, so that they would glorify my Father who is in heaven? And when there are opportunities, am I faithful to take advantage of them and preach the gospel to those around me? In fact, am I willing to create those opportunities? Would I pray for them on a regular basis, as Paul instructs in Colossians 4? That a door would be opened for the word. Am I praying for that on a weekly, on a daily basis, and looking for the opportunities, and starting the right kind of conversation? Let's be people who make disciples and do it everywhere we go.

The Teaching Aspect of Discipleship

We also make disciples not just by baptizing and all that kind of comes around that word, but by teaching, Jesus says. You baptize them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit and you teach them to observe all that I have commanded you. This is that reality where we are continually engaged in the process of discipleship. As Christians and the church, we are not just helping new people follow Jesus, but we are helping each other follow Jesus. We are strengthening each other spiritually. We are spurring one another on towards love and good deeds. It's why we gather, says Hebrews 10:24 and 25. This is something that every single person is to be occupied with. This is again, not something for the super spiritual. You can be a floundering Christian and you should be in some sense aiming to help others follow Jesus, even in your weakness, knowing that his strength is made perfect in your weakness. If you are a strong Christian and you feel empowered by the Lord and engaged in his word and built up by it, it is your job to make disciples. If you are a Christian in the midst of trial or persecution, this is not something that we do away with. We don't say, "I'm hurting so bad that I I can't do this. Life is too hard so I can't do this." In fact, the persecuted church is often where the gospel goes forward the most.

Now, there's two sides of this coin, because you and I need to make disciples and help others continually follow Jesus. We want to strengthen each other as disciples of Christ, but we also are to receive that from others. You and I are needed in this endeavor and we are needy. We need brothers and sisters in our lives to continually bring Christ before us, to continually put his word before our eyes, to continually strengthen us when we are weak, to bear us up when we are failing, to bring their arms around us and help us through the Christian life day by day. So, we give and we take. We offer and we receive in all of these things.

What are some practical ways that you can make disciples and you can do this kind of teaching others to observe? When you hear the word discipleship, probably the first thing you think of is one-on-one discipleship. You think of those interactions where we've set a time or a date and we're reading Scripture together or praying together or holding one another accountable. We're reading a good Christian book that points us to God's word and helps us understand how to live it out. Those one-on-one meetings in intentional discipleship over years are so fruitful. If you have opportunity, engage in a more kind of committed discipleship. It's worthwhile. You will both... we should say this. It's not one mature and one weaker and so that's where the discipleship happens. Those one-on-one relationships are a two-way street where both brothers or both sisters are encouraged and built up and strengthened by each other. Often the way that Christian discipleship looks in the local church is just faithful friendship. Discipleship is faithful Christian friendship. Think of your dearest friend and how they can be honest with you, how they know you well enough to speak into your life when you need it, and then we do that as Christians and it's discipleship.

So there are very committed long-term ways that you can be involved in discipling others. Being a member of a local church is one of those, committing to each other that way. But there are also many small things that you can do to disciple others. A simple encouraging word or a text message or a one-minute phone call can put wind in a brother or sister's sails for the entire week, to spur them on to follow Christ, to be faithful. A simple loving correction, spoken quickly in love, can help a brother or sister see their wandering and turn back to Christ. Singing on Sundays, loud enough even for those around you to hear, is a way that you make disciples. You are professing truth, yes to God and praising him, but also to those around you, and together becoming a chorus and a choir of voices, beautiful to the Lord's ears and to ours, spurring one another on and uniting around the truth of God's word even in song. Did you know that you can make disciples by saying "Amen" on a Sunday morning as we pray together? And just acknowledging, "I am praying that prayer too, and we are in this endeavor together." You can make disciples by simply praying for your church on a weekly basis, maybe making a list of names and praying through it, picking a few a day, praying for good and godly biblical ends in your brothers and sisters' lives. One of the ways you can make disciples that I love to see in the local church is brothers and sisters when we're together in times like this or a Sunday night at the park or a Wednesday evening gathering, when we just mingle and have fellowship before and after, you just see prayer for one another, care, encouragement, and bringing the matters of our lives before the Lord. Some of these things will take planning and commitment, but most of the ways that you're going to be involved in discipling someone else are ordinary. Because this is for ordinary Christians. They'll be simple ways that you involve yourselves in doing spiritual good to the brothers and sisters around you.

The Church's Discipleship Culture

So, what would it look like if we had in the Lord developed a culture of discipleship in our church? If make disciples becomes central in what we do, and we baptize and we teach, and we make this our aim and we continue to grow in this all the more. Well, it's going to look like a church where everyone is involved, and everybody understands that at some level I'm participating in this mission and supporting this work. We're all involved here in the local church and we're all needed here in the local church. A church that is marked by discipleship is a church that has members that understand people are ministry. Making disciples involves people, not a building or systems or structures or things on the calendar, but loving people, helping them follow Christ, investing in them, being with them, committing to one another. A church that understands that making disciples is meant to be at the heart of everything it does, is going to be a church that continually speaks the gospel to one another. Friends, the gospel is not something we start our Christian lives with and then move on from. The gospel is the beginning and the end and everything throughout. It strengthens us, that's what we live by, the word of Christ.

A church that is faithfully, continually making disciples in the long term will be a church that is raising up leaders, and is raising up more to go out and lead churches, and go to far and distant lands, or even our community here around us to preach the gospel, to shepherd the flock, to equip the saints for the work of ministry. We want to see future pastors and missionaries raised up in this church, to send them out, to be a church hopefully that sends more than we can ever receive, because we understand the importance of making disciples. If we understand that making disciples is the mission of the church, we are going to be a church that cheers other churches on when we see the fruit of making disciples across town or across in another state. We're going to happily pray for other churches, happily be involved with other churches, and love to see God's work in Riverside and beyond. Wherever the Lord is bringing growth and spiritual fruit and revival. If his gospel and his word are there, we want to see it flourish.

A church that is marked by discipleship from top to bottom, from the strongest of saints to the weakest of saints, from the high to the low, from the young to the old, we're going to be involved with each other. We're going to go out of our way to know people we don't know as well, to help them follow Christ. We're going to find the person, Lord willing if this room starts to fill up, that appears to be on the fringes a bit, and draw them in so that they would be encouraged and built up in Christ as well. There are so many practical ways that we fulfill this make disciples, this baptizing and teaching. But again, it's not special. It's not spectacular. It's glorious work. But friends, it's ordinary. Each of us can do it. Each of us should be involved in it.

This Is a Mission With Christ

Last and finally, this is not just a mission given to the church, and a mission to make disciples to help others follow Christ. But this is a mission that Christ joins us in, and he is a part of with us. Look at verse 20. Jesus has told us in verse 19, in verse 18, "All authority has been given to me," so, verse 19, "make disciples, baptizing and teaching them," and verse 20 at the end says, "Behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age." As we go and we fulfill Christ's mission here on earth, Christ promises his presence with us. This might be the best part of this passage, that Christ says, "As you go and do my work, I am with you." If you look in verse 17, some of his disciples when they saw him, they had gone to Galilee like he told them earlier in the chapter, and in verse 17, some worshiped him and some doubted. Some of the 11 there even were doubting. And they were wondering, "What's going on? What happens next?" In context, we know that Christ would have told them that he would soon depart from them. And he only spent 40 days there with them. And so, some of them were thinking, "What are we going to do making disciples if Christ isn't with us?" And after the Ascension, you saw the disciples. There they were in the beginning of the book of Acts, afraid, gathering together, praying, yes, but not yet going out and feeling empowered and emboldened. So Christ encourages them, and in love he says, "I am with you always."

How can we know that we can go out and make disciples? How can we know that we can evangelize and disciple even when it's scary or uncomfortable? How can I begin to ask pointed, specific questions to a brother or sister, to get to know them better when it feels like there's a distance between us? How can I engage my co-worker or my neighbor and it's uncomfortable? How would we remain faithful in this even if persecution arose in our country? We would know, and we would be faithful to remain in this endeavor to make disciples because Christ is with us. The spiritual fruit that we want to see born in and through our church as we aim to make disciples is not possible on our own. We will not accomplish this mission in our own strength. We will not be able to. When we do things in our own strength, we often fail. Christ with us, "I am with you." Christ's promise of his presence is also the promise of his power with us. We need to depend on Christ and Christ alone, knowing that this is his work in the world, and he has graciously involved us in it. Knowing that it is Christ and his Spirit who enlivens dead hearts, who awakens dead sinners, who even strengthens us day by day to live faithfully in this world.

Christ empowers us and he is present with us. You can remember his words to the disciples, "I am going, but I am sending you the Helper, which is the Holy Spirit." And so when we think about the reality that Christ is with us, and that he is with us by his Spirit, and we want to see the Lord do spiritual work among us, we pray, and we pray, and we pray some more because we want to depend on him, not ourselves. Because Christ is with us, it emboldens us to do big and great things for God. It emboldens us because we know Christ is with us, to pray big prayers of what God might do in this church and what he might do around the world. Let's ask God to use us to make disciples in ways that perhaps we've yet imagined, and with types of people that we have yet thought of, and in places that have yet to cross our minds. Let's ask God boldly to raise up many from this church who will go and bless other churches, whether they are five minutes away or 5,000 miles away. Let's ask God to use us in that end because Christ is with us. Let's ask God to keep us faithful till the end, clinging to Christ who is present with us, so that we would watch God build up our church together through his power, through his word, through his gospel, through his means, not our own.

And let's take great comfort that this is a promise that Christ gives to each one of us, that he is with us to the end of the age. That in the face of persecution and famine and sword, in the face of physical ailment and calamity, in the face of relational unrest, in the face of disunity in the church, in the face of struggles because of age, whether it be young or old, in the face of all the kinds of trouble that we experience on this side of heaven, Christ says, "I am with you always, even to the end of the age." So hear this, to the strongest Christian in the room, where you have no doubt today of anything and anything in life, Christ is with you and you need to continue depending on him. To the weakest Christian who feels like you could barely get to church today, Christ is with you. To those struggling in sin and feeling like they cannot overcome that which ails them, Christ is with you and empowers you today. Those in trial, Christ is with you. He has not left you. He is ever-present by your side. And church, Christ is with us. He has promised to his church that when we gather together, there he is with us. What a glorious promise! What a glorious thing that we have been invited into by God, to make disciples, to join him in his mission of making great, much of his name, to magnify his glory, to make disciples and gather worshipers to himself. Christ calls us to join us, join him in that. What a glorious mission we've been invited into. Let's pray.

Lord, we come before you once more in prayer and we ask that you would strengthen us by your presence, by your word, by the testimony of one another, and the involvement of each other in our lives, by the simple prayers of the saints that you hear and pick up and use. Lord, and by your powerful Spirit, we pray that you would help us to be faithful to the mission that you have given us, to gladly, wherever we can, obey this command to make disciples. And Lord, would you keep our church faithful in this. May we not waver or wander from it. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.