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Our God is omniscient, but we don't know him very well. That is why we come to his house to know him bit by bit. Imagine A person who knows God since childhood, God's view becomes his or her worldview. Psalm 127:3-5a says, Behold, Children are a heritage from the Lord, the womb a reward. Like arrows in the hand of a warrior are the children of one's youth. Blessed is the man who fills his quiver within. Unquote. Wherever the warrior aims at, the arrow will be there. Our church is much blessed with many children and Every year we have Vacation Bible School to lead the children to know God. Blessed are those who put up all the efforts. Blessed is the kingdom of God to grow. Let's pray. Dear Heavenly Father, Heavenly Father, thank you for your blessing of this church where we can come freely to worship you. Thank you for blessing this church with many children. They are the future of our kingdom. We pray that you inspire all members, not only the parents, to put all their efforts to raise the children together according to your will and to become your beloved children, that is, your soldiers. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.

Please join us in standing as we praise God. The Splendor.

The Splendor of the King, clothed in majesty, let all the earth rejoice. All the earth rejoices. He wraps himself in light, and darkness tries to hide and trembles at his voice. Trembles at his voice. How great is our God! Sing with me! How great is our God! And all will see how great, how great is our God. And age to age he stands, and time is in his hands. Beginning and the end, beginning and the end. The Godhead, three in one. Father, Spirit, Son. The Lion and the Lamb. The Lion and the Lamb. How great is our God. Sing with me. How great is our God. All will see how great, how great is our God. Name above all names, worthy of all praise. My heart will sing how great is our God. Name above all names, worthy of all praise. My heart will sing how great is our God. How great is our God. Sing with me, how great is our God. And all will see how great, how great is our God. You came to us a man, in very nature God, pierced for our iniquities as you hung upon the cross, but God exalted you. To the highest place, and gave to you the right to bear the name above all names, and at the name of Jesus we should bow, and every tongue confess you as Lord, when you come in glory for the world to see. We will sing. Hail to the King in all his splendor and majesty. Hail to the King of Kings, Lord Jesus. Jesus our God. We eagerly await the coming of the day when the glory of the risen King will shine upon the earth. The rival thrones will fall. Before the Lord of all, inhale supreme authority in the true and living God. At the name of Jesus, we will bow. As every tongue confesses you as Lord, when you come in glory for the world to see, to see. We will sing, hail to the King in all his splendor and majesty. Hail to the King of Kings. Lord Jesus, our God. Hail to the King in all his splendor and majesty. Hail to the King of Kings. Lord Jesus, our God. How great the chasm that lay between us. How high the mountain I could not climb. In desperation, I turned to heaven and spoke your name. To the light. Through the darkness, your loving kindness tore through the shadows of my soul. The work is finished, the end is written. Jesus Christ, my living hope. Who could imagine so great a mercy? What heart could fathom such boundless grace? The God of ages stepped down from glory to wear my sin and bear my shame. The cross has spoken, I am forgiven. The King of Kings calls me his own. Beautiful Savior, I'm yours forever. Jesus Christ, my living hope. Hallelujah, praise the one who set me free. Hallelujah. Death has lost its grip on me. You have broken every chain. There's salvation in your name, Jesus Christ, my living hope. Then came the morning that sealed the promise. Your very body began to breathe out of the silence. The roaring lion declared, "The grave has no claim on me." The King of the morning That sealed the promise. Your very body began to breathe out of the silence. The rolling mire declare the grave has no claim on me. Jesus, yours is the victory. Hallelujah! Praise the one who set me free. Hallelujah! Death has lost its grip on me. You have broken every chain. There's salvation in your name, Jesus Christ, my living hope. Hallelujah! Praise the one who set me free. Hallelujah! Death has lost its grip on me. You have broken every chain. There's salvation in your name, Jesus Christ, my living hope. Jesus Christ, my living hope. Oh God, you are my living hope.

Let's pray. Uh, Lord, we just acknowledge that you are the King of Kings, Lord of Lords. And we were once your enemy because of our sin, and we just confess that, that we don't deserve your love for us. But you, despite that, you still offer it to us by giving us your Son, the living hope. And not just a hope, but an assurance of our salvation, assurance of grace that we are no longer bound by a spiritual chain, but we're free, and we're free in you, and we have victory in Jesus. And that's why we thank you and praise you. And it is you that we offer our praise, and we sing hallelujah and praise the one who has set us free. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. Uh, now is the time for greetings, so please take a moment just to greet each other and welcome each other.

All right, can you all hear me? Okay, good morning everyone. It's great to see you all. Pastor Paul asked me to share a bit, um, during today's service. And since so many college students are preparing to return to campus, some for the very first time, I thought it'd be fitting for me to talk a bit about my own faith journey during college. So going into freshman year, I knew I wanted to find a campus ministry. I'd seen how easy it was for a lot of my friends to fall away from their faith as soon as they left home, and I didn't want that to happen to me. But at first, I was quite overwhelmed by the number of different fellowships that there were at CMU. and I was worried that I wouldn't be able to find the right one. But after visiting a few, I eventually found Acts 2 Fellowship, and I've really enjoyed being part of it so far. I've met a diverse group of students from both Pitt and CMU and had amazing young adult mentors. I also really loved our pastor's sermons, to which I wouldn't fall asleep during Sunday service. Um, but truthfully, one of my favorite parts was the food. They would serve us lunch after Sunday service and on Fridays our mentors would open up their homes for us for dinner and Bible study. And often I would joke with my friends that the only time I would eat any fruits and vegetables were because of church. But even though I was going to church every week, I felt like my faith was stagnating. I found myself skipping Bible studies and— Bible studies and small groups during the week so I could just finish a problem set or make it to a club meeting. And soon I wasn't really involved in the community me anymore. And because of that, I felt a lot of my friendships were surface level at best, and I wasn't really growing in my faith. Um, so this summer I spent a bit of time reflecting, um, and setting goals in attempt to be more intentional with my relationship with Christ this upcoming school year. And I want to share a few of them, as well as some advice for rising freshmen or anyone else who will be going to college. My first is to find a fellowship and to stick with it. I spent the first few weeks looking and trying out different churches, and I thought that was the best way to kind of get a sense of what I wanted. Um, definitely pray on it and trust that God always has a plan for you. My second is that church is non-negotiable. This is one that I kind of struggled with, but it's really easy in college to skip fellowship when there are so many distractions in life. For me, it was homework and clubs, but for other people it might be friends socials or parties. Um, I've learned to treat Sunday service, small group, and Bible studies like any other commitment in life and have learned to block them off in my calendar so that I don't forget. And lastly, and I think one of the most important ones, is to find friends who will keep you accountable. I think your friends are a reflection of who you are, and, um, I try to surround myself with people that will push me to grow in all areas of my life, including spiritually. I personally was really blessed to have Ben and some other close friends with me these past 2 years, um, and we'd all go to church together as well as do devotionals together. It's nice to have a group of friends who will support and encourage you and sometimes wake you up so that you're not late for church. In many ways, I think college is the first real test of faith for some young adults. While I struggled to prioritize my faith in the past, I hope that I can build habits to spend more time with him reading his word and praying this upcoming school year. And I hope that by doing so, I can live a bit more like Jesus and spread his love on campus this year. And I hope that you all can too, as well. Thank you.

It's time for scripture reading. Let's all rise. This is from Psalm 2. Why? Let's read together. Why do they waste their time with futile things? The kings of the earth dread battle. The rulers are just against the Lord and against his son. Let us break the chains of their crime and free ourselves from slaves to God. But the one who rules in heaven loves us. Joseph. Then in anger he rebukes them, terrifying them with his fierce fury. For the Lord declares, I have placed my chosen king of God in Joseph on my holy mountain. The king proclaims the Lord's decree. The Lord said to me, you are my son, together I have— and I will give you the nations as your inheritance, the whole earth as your possession. You will break the— and smash like clay pot. Be warned, you rulers of the earth, serve the Lord with reverent fear and rejoice with trembling. Submit to the God's son, for he will will become angry and you will be destroyed in the midst of all your things. For his anger fells out in an instant, but all things take refuge in him.

The sun is smashing, smashing in England. That means something wonderful, right? You're something that's really smashing. That's good. But in this context, as we saw, someone who has a rod of iron, when they are smashing, that means they're breaking things. And this psalm today is written at a time when Israel was smashing the nations around it, but it's really also about smashing things past, present, and future. And I just thought I would summarize the psalm we just read. It's just got a few basic points, which is that the nations out there, groups of people, are resisting God's dominion, his rulership, his lordship. But God isn't fazed by that. He has sent his Son to smash them. And so why not join God, be part of him and what he's doing, instead of becoming destroyed in the end? So that is the storyline. But what does it look like? And if you look out around us, do you see any smashing going on? Do you see any rebellion going on? And so we're going to look at what we— how we can understand it. Now, these surrounding nations in the time of David included some names we don't see much on the map anymore, like Babylon or Moab. But we do have names like Babylon is part of what country? Iraq. Yeah, Iraq. And what is Persia? Iran. And what is Moab? It's Jordan. So all of these, we could just place them on top of the map and see where is where. And we could talk about geopolitics, just like they had a lot in the Old Testament of nations and how they're arrayed against each other and who had the upper hand and then who got ahead of whom. And even in Isaiah, there's many prophecies. It's kind of confusing. What's Isaiah saying about all these countries? But that's not what I'm mostly interested in today. I'm interested in how this all applies, this conflict between Israel and the surrounding nations. Would apply to us today and to look at it on a spiritual level. So the— just as surrounding nations were enemies of Israel, then the Lord or the kingdom of God has spiritual enemies. And so that's where we're going to find application. Now, the spiritual battle that's talked about in the New Testament, as you know, it goes all the way back to the very beginning in the garden. Now, do you remember how many laws and rules and what God's chains, what the bonds of Adam and Eve looked like at the beginning? They could eat any tree, the fruit of any tree in the entire garden, except one tree they couldn't eat. But when the serpent came along, he really tried to stir things up. "What? You can't eat from every tree, as if they had a right to every tree, even the one that God had said was off limits. But she and they both ended up eating that one tree that they were not allowed to, and down came the rod of iron. But what it looked like was a promise, a prophecy, a statement that God made that said your to the serpent, saying, "Your seed," or your offspring, "will be at war with the offspring of Eve from generation to generation. He will strike your head, you will strike his heel." So this was all the way back at the beginning a kind of battle. But the striking, if you'll notice, it didn't happen right away. It was kind of put off. And even the punishment on Adam and Eve was put on those animals, and they were allowed to live for some time later. Well, they had two sons, and the two sons brought offerings. And the one son, Abel, he brought his firstborn lamb to offer. But what did Cain bring? Some vegetables. And when Cain's offering wasn't accepted, he was really upset.

He said, what?

Well, what's wrong with— what's wrong with bringing vegetables? He couldn't accept that he had to trade his vegetables for lambs and sacrifice those instead, to give a blood sacrifice instead of vegetables. It was a category error, but he wouldn't change. So then down came the rod. After Cain killed his brother, he was banished. He was taken— his leadership position in the family was taken away. He was banished from even the area around Eden and made into a wanderer. And then began, if you follow the chapters of Genesis after that, two bloodlines. The line of Cain, who became like the bad guys, and then the line of Seth, who were like the good guys who came from Eve. Well, after the flood, which I'm trying to skip through because we have a little ground to cover, You remember the story of like the first nation when everyone had one speech and they were living in, I guess, Mesopotamia somewhere, and they built a tower and they said, "Let us make a name for ourselves." Now people speculated, why did they build a tower? Was to get away from the next flood. So the first flood had drowned everybody, right? So the people figured, well, if we build a tower and God sends another flood, we can just go upstairs. And escape judgment. Do you see the logic? So what happened when God saw this? Down came the rod, and he confused their languages, so they had to stop building because they, they couldn't understand each other. But he didn't— so that was the way that he, he held in check that force. And this battle between good and evil continued on to the next generation. But this nation was not allowed to exercise its authority. Its authority was taken away. Now you know, of course, the story of how Egypt became one of the biggest civilizations, most advanced civilizations for many, many years. But the Pharaoh was proud. And when Moses went to him and said, "Let my people go to worship God," he said, "I don't know the Lord." and I will not let you go. But down came the rod, and after 10 plagues, finally he let the people go. Pharaoh changed his mind. They chased after the people, and they got drowned in the Red Sea. And so justice was done finally. But after the people were in the wilderness, they're on their way to the Promised Land, this unknown tribe at the time, Amalek, came up and Moses fought against them. Moses went on a hill, he raised his staff. Joshua and his men in the field fought Amalek. And as long as he had his arms up, what happened? Israel was winning. At the end of that battle, Israel won. It says, Moses writes, the Lord will be at war with Amalek generation after generation. Generation. And these are new Amaleks. They're Amaleks that are like— there are other tribes that are following that example, that are in like those nations. But then, not long after, when Moses is receiving the commandments from God, we have a whole new enemy. It's not an outside nation, it's people right here in our midst, right within the people of God. They turned against God by building a different god, this golden calf. And so we see that even within the nation, within God's people, we have faithful and reprobate. And down came the rod. Moses, when he was so upset, he took his hammer and he took that golden calf and he pulverized it into powder. He put the powder into drink— into water, and he made people drink it. And I was wondering this week, I was like, why did he make people drink up the gold? That was like valuable gold, right? He could have just made it into something else. And I thought, well, what happened to those little gold powder? Ended up in their waste mat— waste, right? So he basically took that idol and he scatified it. I made up a new word. I looked it up on Google. Nobody ever had this word before. To scatify, that means to Poopify the idol. At least I got 2 laughs, 3 laughs. Thank you. We need more teenagers in the group. They would laugh. The kids would have laughed. That's what he did to the idol. So he wasn't really after the people so much as he was after the idol and making an example of the idol. So that was how the rod was used in that situation. Now again, skipping ahead many generations, those reprobate or those— unfortunately, Israel, although it had its glory years with Samuel and David and Solomon, the reprobate or the evil within finally got to be so bad that God sent the Babylonians to take it over, to put them into exile. And during the exile, you have 4 key nations were Babylon, Persia, Greece, and finally Rome, who rose up and dominated the people of God and even over the area of Israel for 400— roughly 490 years, right? But Daniel had interpreted the king of Babylon's dream that someday this rock is going to come down and strike at the heel of that fourth kingdom, and this whole thing is going to tumble down. And that's the picture that you see there. And then God will set up a kingdom that will never be destroyed, that will crush all these kingdoms, and it will stand forever. And that is what then later Jesus, who called himself the Son of Man, he said was the kingdom of God which is at hand. So Jesus himself, the Son, the Anointed One, appears on the earth among his people, and what happens? They all said hallelujah, right? No, some did. Hosanna, Hosanna. But within days they were saying, crucify him, crucify him. They were up in arms. So this isn't external nations. Again, this is within, rebelling against God's anointed one. But this is like the greatest injustice. The anointed one would be put put to death. But God righted this terrible injustice when he raised Jesus from the dead. So that rock that came and destroyed all those nations— where is that new kingdom that's grown up? Well, Jesus said to Pilate, "My kingdom is not of this world. If it was, he would have raised an army," right? But that doesn't mean it isn't real. It just means that it's not visible. So what we're talking about now is this kingdom, the kingdom that has a white horse and a rider whose eyes are blaze of fire. On his head has many crowns and a sharp sword coming out of his mouth so that he can subdue the nations and rule them with a rod of iron. On his road robe and thigh is written King of Kings and Lord of Lords. But where? Where is he? Where was he in Alaska when the— some of these so-called superpowers are having their summit, so-called summit? Did Jesus have a seat at the table? Does the church not care about geopolitics? What's really going on? And so we could still see injustices and feel something's not right. And so the natural reaction for many in the church is, well, we just have to wait. We just have to wait, and someday Jesus is going to come down with the rod of iron and make it all right. But I don't know, I kind of believe that Jesus is already doing it. He's already using his rod of iron, but he's using it in a way that we're not necessarily used to, or we don't like it, or we don't think he's fast enough, or he's not quick enough, or he's not just enough. But this is the way that he has done it, and he's promised just as he raised Jesus from the dead, he will raise us from the dead. So for example, in the book of Revelation, we read about martyrs. And for someone to be martyred for their, for their faith is also— it's like, it's not right. It's not just. But God promises something for those martyrs that's better even than the life that they had, that vindicates their sacrifice. So what I'm saying is that God, even though we see injustices in the world, he has a new kind, a bigger vision of what is justice. So he has a reward to give people because life, there's life beyond what we see. So for example, when Moses was saved, remember when all the little boys of Egypt were being killed by the Israeli kids being killed by the Egyptians? And Moses was saved. Hallelujah. Well, what about all the other boys that weren't saved? So those injustices are made right in the end through God and his providence. And so that's something that we can trust. So what I'm saying is that God God is ruling now, but His rod is not the kind of rod that gives people immediate spankings. We would be happier if the punishment was administered more rapidly, but He holds off, He holds back. When I had a company in China and one employee would offend another employee, they always wanted me to punish, punish the one, but that other employee was valuable too. I didn't want to get rid of them. Unnecessarily. So what happened in the first century was the collapse of the old system and the temple, just like Samson when he pushed those pillars and it all came crashing down. So did the system of the Old Testament and what those Pharisees that had accused Jesus. And so what's left is what we have now. Which is Christianity, the invisible church, invisible temple, because we are the temple. And so I ask you, where are the enemies? In the Old Testament and in Israel, it's so easy to look on the map and identify the enemies, but where are they now? You don't have to look very far. Are they in Hokkessen? Are they on Brackenville Road? Are they even in this building? In the other service, of course, not in this service. Just kidding. Or even within us. And this is what Paul writes about our enemies. He says, "We're not fighting against humans. We're fighting against forces and authorities and rulers of darkness and powers in the spiritual world. We're wrestling." with ourselves. We're wrestling against ideologies that are competing with God's truth. As it says, as Paul says in 1 Corinthians, I want you to read along, not to read out loud, but to follow this with me. He says, we are human, but we don't wage war as humans do. We use God's mighty weapons, not worldly weapons, to knock down the strongholds of human reasoning and to destroy false arguments. We destroy every proud obstacle that keeps people from knowing God, and we capture their rebellious thoughts and teach them to obey Christ. And after you become fully obedient, we will punish everyone who remains disobedient. So the battle— there's this war going on in our minds, in our hearts, and even in our conversations. With what is true and what is the rebellious truth, or like Satan's truth. So that is where the battle is. Now, way back in Isaiah in chapter 2, Isaiah had prophesied about how Israel itself was becoming its own enemy. And he said that he's looking for this day of world peace, you know, the quote they have at the United Nations about how we'll stop studying war and there will be peace everywhere. And, and he prophesies that human pride will be brought down and human arrogance will be humbled, and only the Lord will be exalted on that day of judgment. So human pride and arrogance is everywhere, and I think all of us could admit that it's right here in this room, and I could be the first to admit. I know my wife, who knows me better than anyone, would probably say, "Yep, yeah, I've seen human pride and human arrogance in my husband." Right? Right, Sais? She just laughed, so I'll take that as a yes. So we know where the enemy is, but where are the soldiers? Where is the fighting? Jesus says he doesn't need soldiers. Well, what does He need? He needs coworkers, volunteers, more people like Caleb and Joshua. And I showed this picture before when we were talking about the spies in the wilderness and how the people of Israel, through all those 10 plagues, were led out of Egypt. They're about to enter the Promised Land, a land flowing with milk and honey. But the spies found out there's some bad guys there. And they're like, "Uh-oh, I guess we can't go there because there's enemies. They're big and tall. So we're stuck here in the wilderness." In fact, some of them wanted to go back to Egypt. But Caleb and Joshua said, "No, God brought us this far. He's with us. Let's go forward." And so, What did God do? He, he said, fine, if you want to stay— the majority said stay, so that's what they did. And he said, I'll let you stay for a whole generation. And they got what they wanted, which was they were afraid to go forward. They weren't willing. So God works with volunteers, as you'll see, as a principle all through Scripture. But we'll still wonder, why so slow? Why isn't God's justice more quick? Why is he so gradual? And here it states the purpose in Matthew 13 with this parable, which I've slightly edited down. It goes like this: The kingdom of heaven is like a farmer who planted good seed in his field, but weeds grew. Weeds also grew. Did anybody have a garden? Delaware is like the land of weeds, isn't it? And I was talking to a landscaper just a few days ago, and he was asking if you put down those black mats like underneath your garden, will that stop the weeds? He says it helps a little, but they just come through the air. They come from under and they come from over. You can't stop. So the weeds were growing in Israel too, in this man's field. And the workers asked, "Sir, should we pull out the weeds?" "No," he replied. Well, that was a surprise. Why not? Because you'll uproot the wheat if you do. Instead, let both grow together until the harvest. Then I will tell the harvesters to sort out the weeds and burn them and put the wheat in the barn. So here we can see God's purpose in being patient, because if you give people time, what will happen? Stacy's husband might get less arrogant.

Right?

She's not holding her breath though, right? I might. So he's patient. If he's patient with me, he could be patient with us as we root out that parts that we want to read out, to weed out. And those people who we think are the bad guys, like the Russians— the Russians are the bad guys, right? Has anyone been to Russia in this room? Please raise your hand. Been to Russia? I've been. I went twice, in fact, in high school and then again in college. And in those days, the Russians really were the bad guys. It was during the Cold War. And that was why I was so curious. I was curious to see how bad are they. And when we went there, and we had— I remember we had this like student conversation, student exchange, and some of the guys, we would, through translators, we were studying Russian at the time, they would say, they would say like the party line, and we thought, oh, you can tell they're just, they're like robots, they're just saying what the government wants them to say. So it wasn't hard to keep thinking that they're the bad guys, but then after when we were just hanging out with the Russians and singing and sharing vodka, We found out, oh, there's some pretty cool people in Russia. And when I went walking in the park, there's some old ladies, more than one, who stopped me and said, where are you from? I think she could tell from my clothes that I wasn't Russian. Ja Amerikanits. Oh, tu Amerikanits. You're American? So she said, we don't want war. We want peace between our countries. She would like, you know, grab— she, these grandmas would like babushka— grab you by the arm and say, you Americans are building more bombs, that means we have to build them too. But if you just stop building them, then we could stop building them and we'd have more food in the grocery store. So what I'm trying to say is that there's a lot of people in Russia that aren't enemies. They're not. And now some people want to make China into an enemy, and they— some of the politicians have been doing that for a while. But I lived in China for 30 years, and I can tell you that there's a lot of people there that are not enemies. So why are we making them enemies? So this is God's attitude towards people, that we should be a little gradual and shouldn't just strike with a rod and like wipe out whole nations. Because they're not Christian? That's not right. So this gives the rationale. When David wrote this famous Psalm 23, he says, when I walk through the darkest valley, I will not be afraid, for you are close beside me. Your rod and your staff protect me and comfort me. You prepare a feast for me in the presence of my enemies. So being in the presence of our enemies doesn't mean we have to be fearful. And just because the rod isn't being used visibly to strike people down who, you know, make us unhappy, it's there. So I want us to know that the rod is there and we're defended properly, and that hope that we will take comfort in that, and that we can be willing to live in the presence of our enemies, knowing that they might not be such enemies for long. As the psalm that we read today ends, Psalm 2, what joy for all who take refuge in him. So when we're aware of our enemies, it just draws us to leads us to be more— reach out to God or more to cry out and to depend on him and to trust in his justice. Let's pray. We have David Choir in a minute, I think. Hold on one second. Are you there? One minute. One minute. They're ready to come in. Dear Lord, your rod, it's invisible, but we know it's there. I pray for more workers to voluntarily join you in your kingdom, and that we can patiently wait as your word and your spirit does its work day by day and week by week. We know you're on the throne. We know our enemies are spiritual. We know your grace is sufficient for us. We know that vengeance is yours, and so we trust you. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. Uh, Tony. Can we have the David Choir first, because they're right there, and then you guys can do your lesson.

Uh, let's all stand and sing the responsive song.

How great the chasm that lay between us, how high the mountain I could not climb. In desperation, I turned to heaven and spoke your name into the night. Then through the darkness, your loving kindness tore through the shadows of my soul. The work is finished, the end is written. Jesus Christ, my living hope. Who could imagine so great a mercy? What heart could fathom such boundless grace. The God of ages stepped down from glory to wear my sin and bear my shame. The cross has spoken, I am forgiven. The King of Kings calls me his own. Beautiful Savior, I'm yours forever. Jesus Christ, my living hope. Hallelujah, praise the one who set me free. Hallelujah. Death has lost its grip on me. You have broken every chain. There's salvation in your name, Jesus Christ, my living hope. Then came the morning that sealed the promise. Your very body began to breathe. Out of the silence, the roaring lion declared, "The grave has no claim on me." Then came the morning that sealed the promise. Your buried body began to breathe out of the silence. The roaring lion declared, "The grave has no claim on me." Jesus, yours is the victory. Hallelujah! Praise the one who set me free. Hallelujah! Death has lost its grip on me. You have broken every chain. There's salvation in your name, Jesus Christ, my living hope. Hallelujah! Praise the one who set me free. Hallelujah! Death has lost its grip on me. You have broken every chain. There's salvation in your name, Jesus Christ, my living hope. Jesus Christ, my living hope. Oh God, you are my living hope.

You can be seated.

Good morning, everybody. Good to see everybody here today. I've got lots of things to tell you, but I'll tell you about the first thing coming up right after the service, since we tend to keep things in— try to keep things in chronological order. The Elder and Deacon Board decided that we'll be having lunch now every day— every Sunday— every day— every Sunday except for the, I think, right around New Year's Eve or Christmas, and then the retreat weekend. So there may be some recruitment for cooking later on. So anyway, today is also a lunch Sunday, just to let you know. So we can move on to the next slide. Any new visitors here today? I know we have a lot of college folks back today. This is great to see everybody. Anybody else? Hello. Yeah, we have a gift for you.

So—

My name is Jia, J-I-A, Jia.

I'm from China.

I'm a PhD student in China. And I'm here at UB as a visiting scholar for 1 year. And this is my 3rd mosque here. I'm very glad to come here and meet all of you for only Sunday morning. Thank you.

Great. Yeah. We have a little gift for you that if you'll fill it out and get it back to us, you can get on our mailing list. Next slide. The Fall Festival, save the date. It'll be the 20th of September. And please be praying for the preparation. There'll be invitations later for helping with that event. And then next slide. Several things to mention. Salt and Light Fellowship on the 23rd. You can talk to Don here about details. Um, there's something else I wanted to mention and get into your memory, uh, is that next Sunday right after the service we'll have a 10-minute break and then we're going to go into a business meeting for the English congregation to inform you on some things that have been circulating. Um, for the last two retreats we've been talking about a building project. We'll give you some details related to that. No decision has been made yet, but just to give you some details on the process and thinking. And then just some other interesting things that we're debating or thinking about with related to this service that we conduct every Sunday, the way we conduct the Sunday. There's a teacher's training for those who'll be helping out with the youth— sorry, the, the children's ministry, and that'll be September 6th at 10 AM. And then also One other thing I wanted to mention, that the MOMCO will be starting in September. We'll give you more details on that next week. But we have a Chinese and an English-speaking MOMCO at two different times. Then if you would like more details, since I've just given you a whole lot of information, you probably would like some way of refreshing it, you can get to our bulletin at wcc.churchcenter.com and look for the bulletin there. If you'd like to get some of the texts that we send out weekly, just talk to myself, my wife, or Dwight in the back, and we can get you signed up on WhatsApp. That's it for me. Please rise for the doxology. Praise God from whom all blessings flow. Flow.

Praise him, all creatures here below. Praise him above the heavenly host. Praise Father, Son, and Holy— Please remain standing. Before I do the benediction, I'd like to do a special— is anyone not going to be here, going back to college for the next few months and we won't see you until Thanksgiving or Christmas? Raise your hand. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, and then someone scratching their head. I guess I won't count you. 7. All right, this prayer is for you first, okay? Dear Lord, we have some terrifically talented and beautiful college students. We ask that you will be with them. We heard from Pauline some really sound advice that the spirit is willing but the flesh can be weak, and that calendar can be a lifesaver. So I just thank you that they're Spirit of desire for you will manage that calendar and put in it the reminders they need to, to make that, to be disciplined enough to put you where you belong, the first in their hearts. And Father, I ask that you be attentive to them and their needs, providing for them, keeping them healthy and helping them to accomplish their other goals at school too. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. And now for the benediction. Take courage in the face of our spiritual adversaries. The Lord is breaking down strongholds of human reasoning. He is smashing human arrogance. All around us, day by day, even that that's inside us. He rules the world with truth and grace and makes the nations prove the glories of his righteousness and wonders of his love. May the peace of the Lord Jesus Christ be upon us all. Amen. Thank you for being here.