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Good morning, Wilmington Community Evangelical Church. Welcome to the Sunday service. Well, one day a wife asked her husband, "So let's play the game." So the husband said, "Hmm, video game?" His wife said, "No, just a simple game." So the husband raised his eyebrows a little. "What are the rules?" The wife said, "Well, it's simple. If I say a color, you use your right hand to touch the left side of the wall." If I say the fruit, you use your left hand to touch the right side of the wall. Husband raised his eyebrows again. So what's the catch? Wife said, ah, whoever loses, that person will have to listen to another person for the rest of his life. Husband said, his life? What made you think I will lose? Let's play the game. Wife said, okay, let's begin. The husband said, "Game on!" The wife said, "Orange." To this day, the husband has not responded yet. Let's pray. Never underestimate a wife's wisdom. They took a bone from us and let's see what happened to us. Let's pray. Dear Heavenly Father, we are So thankful to come here to get together. The sun is shining outside. It's such a wonderful day. It's a day you have made. We are excited to be here, and I hope we are all excited. We are excited, some of us perhaps, because we are here to— we can greet each other. We can say how grateful we are in the past week. We see a friend that we have not seen for a week, that we are so happy in our lives. However, perhaps we're here, maybe we have some difficulties in our jobs, in our school, we have a deadline approaching, we have a homework that we're about to miss, we have exams coming up. Or maybe we're sick, we have lost someone we loved, or simply because we feel lonely. But no matter what, let's come to you. Let's worship you, sing the praise led by Jonathan and his team. We're going to listen to wisdom, the message delivered by Pastor Condrell, and then we're going to enjoy our Sunday school. Where we can study, discuss, and have some fun. So God, please get us closer to you while we are here today. And also, I would like to pray for those who are not able to be with us today. They are traveling, they're at home, they couldn't— they don't have transportation, no matter what reason. Please also help them to bring them the spirit to hear, so we can all worship God together. In Your name we pray, amen.

Good morning, everyone. Could you all please stand and join us as we worship together? We'll sing Then Sings My Soul. Paul, my Savior God.

Then sings my soul, my Savior God, to thee. How great thou art, how great thou art. Then sings my soul, my Savior God, to thee. How great thou art, how great thou art.

All right, so we're going to do this a little bit different than you might be used to. It'll be a bit more upbeat.

We sing, oh Lord my God.

Oh Lord, my God, when I adore some wonder, consider who holds the hands that made me. I see the scars that healed my wounds. I bow through the fire and the heat to hear to thee. How great thou art, how great thou art. And when I think, and when I think that God, his Son unsparing, sent him to die I scarce can take it in that on the cross my burden gladly bearing, he bled and died to take away my sin. Then sings, then sings my soul, my Savior God, to thee. How great Thou art, how great Thou art. Then sings my soul, my Savior God, to Thee. How great Thou art, how great Thou art. When Christ shall come with shout of acclamation and take me home, what joy shall fill my heart! Then I shall bow in humble adoration, and they proclaim, my God, how great thou art. Then sings my soul, my Savior God, to thee, how great thou art, how great thou art. Then sings my soul, my Savior God, to thee. How great thou art! How great thou art! How great, how great thou art! How great thou art! can't believe it. Far beyond what hearts could ever dream, the God who set the galaxies in motion would descend to give his life for me. For Why God make perfection bleed for sinners? What needs a king to pay so great a cost? All my life, my heart will sing the answer: only the love of God. Singing, oh, how great is the love of God. He paid our debt on that rugged cross. For all our days, we will sing our Savior's praise. How great is the love of God. It's so kind, it leads us to repentance. It's so bright, the darkness has to flee. Hallelujah! He cleared my guilty sentence, for I was bound, but now I stand redeemed. For what could break the chains of any prison? What force could rob the power of from the grave. What could trade my rags for heaven's riches? Only the love of God. We're singing, oh, how great is the love of God. He paid our debt on that rugged cross. For all our days we will sing our Savior's praise. How great is the love of God. Though I try, my mind can't comprehend it. It's so high, too marvelous for words. And I could sing a million songs about it and barely scratch the surface. I'm yours. This all my life, the banner I'll be waving, my anthem cry, no matter what may come. When I rise to walk the streets of heaven, I'll still be singing this song. Oh my soul, for everything that you've done. How great the love of God. Yeah, we're singing, oh how great How great is the love of God. He paid our debt on that rugged cross. For all our days, we will sing our Savior's praise. How great is the love of God. We're singing. Oh, how great is the love of God. He paid our debt on that rugged cross. For all our days we will sing our Savior's praise. How great Is the love of God. How great is the love of God. What gift of grace is Jesus is my Redeemer. There is no more for heaven now to give. He is my joy, my righteousness and freedom, my steadfast love, my deep and boundless peace. To this I hold My hope is only Jesus, for my life is wholly bound to his. Oh, how strange and divine I can sing, all is mine, yet not I, but through Christ in me. We sing the night is dark. The night is dark, but I am not forsaken, for by my side the Savior, he will stay. I labor on in weakness and rejoicing, for in my need his power is displayed. To this I hold, my Shepherd will defend me through the deep, this valley He will lead. Hope the night has been won, and I shall overcome. Yet not I, but through Christ in me. to overthrow the grave. To this I hold, my sin has been defeated. Jesus now and ever is my plea. Oh, the chains are released, I can sing. I am Free at night, but through Christ in me. With every breath, I long to follow Jesus. For he has said that he will bring me home. And day by day, I know he will renew me until I stand with joy before the throne. To this I hold, my hope is only Jesus. Jesus. All the glory evermore to him. When the race is complete, still my lips shall repeat, yeah, I'm not I but through Christ in me. When the race, when the race is complete. Still my lips shall ring, yet not I, but through Christ in me. Yet not I, but through Christ in me.

Let's bow our heads in prayer. Dear Holy Father, Lord, we thank you this morning that we're able to gather before you. We thank you that we have Jesus as our Redeemer. We thank you that you have bought us with a price that we can't even fathom, that we can't even imagine. Lord, though we might try to capture it with our words, that we might try to capture it with our song and our prayers. Lord, we know that we are fortunate enough that we will never have to gaze upon the cross that was meant for us, that we'll never have to know the full weight of the price that was paid out for us. Or because you have infinite worth, your blood has infinite worth, that Thank you that you have atoned for us, that you have paid the ultimate price for us. And would you remind us that this morning that we can truly stand on that ground. Lord, as we listen to the words that you have for us, as we partake in our fellowship with one another, in our fellowship with you, Lord, I pray that you would remind us through the message as we start our series in Exodus, that you would remind us that the story of the Israelites of how they've gone into the wilderness, of how they've come out, the ways that you've been with them and the ways that you are with us. Well, there are so many parallels and there's so many things to learn. So Lord, would you help us to see those parallels clearly? Would you help us to see the lessons that you have for us in your word clearly? And ultimately, Lord, would you help us to use it to glorify you, to give you back the praise that you deserve? Thank you, Lord, that you're with us this this morning. Would you abide in us and just strengthen us? In Jesus' name we pray.

Amen.

All right, before you're seated, could you please spend a few minutes and just greet each other?

Good morning again. Many, many years ago, when my first daughter Stephanie was in her 7th grade, one day she asked me, Dad, can I date? I look at her, hesitate for a while, then I said, sure, yes. If you truly enjoy someone, yeah, you can date. She smiled and went back to her room. I went back to my study room, sit down, and ask myself, What did I just say? Did I make a mistake? I was a new Christian. So I said, hmm, maybe I need to pray a little. Then I heard a voice. The voice said to me, Stephanie is your daughter. You raised her. You educated her. Now, do you trust her?

I don't trust her.

So I thought a little bit more. So next day I went back to her room and said, Steph, about last night—

Mistakes and decisions, and I have so many scars to show for it. However, here I stand before you still alive. OK, we are in the book of Exodus. That's from a long time ago. Way back in the Old Testament, the second book of the Bible. And I'm calling this series The Birth of a Nation, which allows you to kind of look at what the whole book is all about. If you look at the beginning chapters and then at the end chapters, you see this contrast. Now, this is a book with many famous stories in it that we've all heard, like the story of Moses leading the through all those plagues saying to Pharaoh, "Let my people go." And finally he escapes from Egypt and the Pharaoh is chasing them to the Red Sea and the Lord splits the Red Sea and he passes through. In this picture is where God speaks to the people that are all standing there and actually speaks out, evidently through thunder or something, the Ten Commandments. God gave the Ten Commandments to all the people in their hearing. And there are some really historic events in this book. However, I summarized a couple of them here. We don't have to go through all these things, but they started out as captives and they ended up as free people. They started out as clans and ended up as tribes. And they started out in a place where Pharaoh was king, in Pharaoh's house, in his land, and ended up in a place place where God is King. So this is a kind of a view of before and after. So a lot happens. Now, this is the biggest question though I want to ask in this introduction is, is this all just for history buffs? Now, we have Chris Hahn sitting in the back row there, is actually a history teacher, and he would be happy to sit with you for days and days and talk, and my son that I just mentioned, the 10-year-old who's a history major in college, would do the same thing. But this is a church, not a history class. So why are we talking about this kingdom or these clans and tribes that lived so many years ago? By some measures, it's 2,500 years ago. Some people would say close to— no, no, 3,500 years ago. 2,000 years ago, roughly, is what we're talking about. And I'm gonna go straight to the point, okay? Why are we bothering? And it's because Israel, this country, this old country, is the visible precursor to the invisible Kingdom of God. So we talk about, for example, that the church isn't a building, it's a group of people, right? The church is the people. Well, what is the church? Well, the church is invisible. The real church, the big church, the universal church is invisible. And they use words like in the Gospels of calling it the Kingdom of God. But where are the armies and where are the gates and where are the— it's all invisible. But this Old Testament, including the story of Israel and especially its formation, show us the proof that God is at work and the evidence of God's authority and a lot of information that we're going to need as we live in this invisible kingdom. So in other words, this relationship Israel is to the Old Covenant, what the Kingdom of God is to the New Covenant. Now if you've read the book of Hebrews, you know it says over and over how the New Covenant is much better than the Old Covenant. So don't get worried when you read in the Old Testament how, for example, they have to go to Jerusalem 3 times a year. If you had to go to Jerusalem 3 times a year, where would you— you wouldn't have enough money to eat anymore, would you? Because you'd be flying back and forth all the time. So a lot of the application, we have to use our— we have to think about it. So a lot of this direct information for that nation is only indirect applicable for us today. So we're having to— for example, we don't do animal sacrifice, but what is the indirect application? Well, you could think about it and talk about it, but the first thing is it shows why Jesus' sacrifice is so important. And secondly, it shows we sacrifice now in new ways. We don't sacrifice our animals, but we sacrifice our time and our energy and our prayers and our money. So the— finally, we'll see as we go through over the next couple months in the book of Exodus how one thing we'll see over and over is that the proof, the evidence, the reality of God that's demonstrated even to those Egyptians who didn't believe in him. And that was evidenced in this quote, "This is the finger of God." Remember the first the first few plagues, or the first couple plagues, Pharaoh said, "What is this going— what's going on here?" And he had his own magicians that were able to do some kind of illusions that made him think, "Well, maybe this isn't really God." But then there was one of— I forget which one was it, which plague it was that the magicians had told the Pharaoh, "This, we can't do this one. This is the finger of God." They finally saw this is This invisible God is now proof positive in the real world. And the second thing is demonstrated over and over is how powerful God is and how it's called— over and over later, he said, "The mighty hand that brought them out of Egypt." All the odds were against them. It's like only God could have pulled this off. And you will see that over and over. And then the third thing I wanted just to share in this short intro is that we see in all of this information, it's like the DNA of the nation is revealed. It's like all in the embryo. You don't have to wait. Just right here in the book of Exodus, we get a lot of the laws, the covenant content, and there's a lot of intelligence. And so it gives us plenty to study and then plenty that we'll be able to apply again in our own life. So that is the That's the introduction. I'm going to invite Tommy back up to read the scripture and then we'll get into the sermon.

Thank you.

It's me again. Normally when we read the scripture, normally we will stand out of respect, but not today because I noticed that some people are sitting in the back row and not be able to see the scripture. So let's all be seated and read scripture together with respect. The Israelites were prolific and increased greatly; they multiplied and became extremely strong, so that the land was filled with them. A new Pharaoh arose and said to the people, "Come, let us deal extremely with them, so that they will not multiply and in the event of war join our enemies and fight against us. So they set taskmasters over them to oppress them with hard labor, and the sons of Israel built storage cities for Pharaoh. But the more the Egyptians oppressed them, the more they multiplied and expanded, so that the Egyptians dreaded and were exploited by the Israelites. And so the Egyptians made the Israelites serve recklessly, forcing them into severe slavery. Then Pharaoh gave his order to all his people: "Every Hebrew boy that is born you must throw into the Nile, but let every girl live." They were in slavery and cried out, and their cry for help because of their slavery went up to God. God read them arguing, and he remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob. So God looked on the Israelites and was concerned about them. Now Moses was tending the flocks flock of Jethro his father-in-law near Horeb, the mountain of God. There the angel of the Lord appeared to him in flames of fire from within the bush.

Now that's an odd place to stop this story. That's because next week we're going to have David Jha. Pastor Jha will be here. And he will preach on the call of Moses. So we're talking about the part of Exodus that leads up to that event, and I'm just— named this message "The Conception of a Nation." So the whole book is about the birth, but this very first couple of chapters is the conception. It happens when Israel, the Hebrews, are in a dark place, just like conception happens in a dark place, but when all the conditions are right, you get this spark of life that we call conception. Now here is an artistic rendition of a sperm joining an, an egg, and we're going to see some reflections of this in the first chapters as they set the stage. So I wanna recap what we just read. So the Hebrews had moved down because of the famine. They're in this land of Goshen, north of Egypt, and everything's good. They are reproducing, they're multiplying, just like you would hope that they would. Life is good until they started to get so numerous that they found— they got in the way. I heard a man describe how the Egyptians were very fastidious. They would wear clean clothes and shave and wash, but that the Hebrews were these shepherds and they probably got into all the cafes and country clubs and the Egyptians didn't like them. So they— there were all other reasons why they wanted to stay away. Well, the first step— there's several steps of reaction, and the first one is that he taxes them and he puts them not directly into slavery right away, but he taxes them and abuses the relationship, and then he enslaves them, and he's driven mostly— partly for profit and partly out of fear for them being too numerous, as we just read. But finally, it comes to a head when Pharaoh actually sends out the order to murder the male babies. And we know one of those that was on the chopping block was Moses. And we skipped over the Moses story again. That'll come next week. But that's obviously a very effective way to control population growth, isn't it? But when that Pharaoh dies, the Hebrews cry out to God. Now, you didn't— we didn't read the whole thing, but if you look back, they never cried out. At least it doesn't mention them crying out. For all of those years in slavery, slavery. They didn't cry out. That's bizarre. And why— you would think they would have cried out earlier. And evidently there's two reasons for that. One is that they had been worshiping Egyptian gods. It says later in the book of Joshua that while their ancestors were in Egypt, a lot of them had turned over, been converted to paganism, is one reason they didn't call out to God. But another, I think some of them just felt so hopeless. The things were just so bad, there was no hope. But when that Pharaoh died, the Hebrews cry out to God and God hears their prayer and He responds to their groaning and He sends Moses to help. Now apparently, God had prepared for this well in advance. And some people think, you know, why did God wait, you know, so long to send Moses? He waited till he was 80 years old. It seems like he was waiting there. He could have sent him at any time, but they waited to call out. And as soon as they do, the very next few verses, he calls out and gets Moses, puts him into action. Now, remember what Moses' action plan was, was to go back to Egypt and to separate or to bring the Israelites out of Egypt. So it's very simple. His plan to come and rescue them out of the hands of Egypt and to separate them from Egypt. Now we start to think as we look at this picture, and that's why I cherry-picked these scriptures, there's a pattern emerging that reminds us of something. The very first creation also has some similarities, so I just want to look at this, that in the beginning God created the heavens and earth, and the earth was formless and empty, and darkness was over the surface of the deep. Do you see where I'm going with this? So the Hebrews, when they were living in Egypt, are kind of in this dark place, and God is there. The Spirit of God was hovering over the waters. God is waiting. He's ready to leap into action, but he's waiting for the right moment. And you can see this picture kind of like that sperm and the egg, it's just like ready to go in, ready to strike. And then God said, "Let there be light," and there was light. And God saw that the light was good, and he separated the light from darkness. And so we see in this story of Exodus kind of playing this out, that when he separated the people of Israel, the light, from the darkness that was in Egypt, we could call those good. The ones that came out were good, and the ones that were left behind, Egypt, was evil. And when he says, "Let there be light," what is that in this story? The burning bush, right? The burning bush. Is the light, when that finally— the moment struck and the tables had turned and things started to get better. So we see this relationship that Israel's coming out of Egypt, that is to the Mosaic Covenant what light from darkness is to the creation. So we see in the creation this little kernel of a pattern that we're going to see happen yet again. What other time in the Bible have you ever heard of a mass murder of male babies? In Jesus' day, right. I heard several of you. You both get the prize, Eunice and Jacob. I know some of you were thinking it, but you just didn't say it out loud. That's right. There was another time, and it's— you can read it in the book of Matthew when Herod realized Herod was King of Judea, right? Or King of the Tetrarchy or something. When Herod realized that he had been outwitted by the Magi, he was furious and he gave orders to kill all the boys in Bethlehem and its vicinity who were 2 years old and under. This doesn't happen very often in world history, but here it happens twice. And the first time it happened, was at the precipice or at the beginning of the Old Covenant's formation, the conception of the Mosaic Covenant. Now it's happening again. What's about to take place after this murderous rampage is none less than— nothing other than the conception of the New Covenant, the kingdom of God. It's Jesus who survived this killing, just like Moses survived when his mom put put him in the basket. So Jesus' parents took him to Egypt and he survived this terrible event. It says that that was a prophecy that was fulfilled from the prophet Jeremiah. Let's read it now. A voice— this is quoting Jeremiah 31— a voice is heard in Ramah, weeping and great mourning, Rachel weeping for her children and refusing to be comforted. Because they are no more. And you can only imagine the suffering of the mothers and the fathers, both in Egypt when those Hebrew babies were killed, or in Bethlehem, in this area, when these babies, for no reason, were killed in cold blood. And the suffering of those parents. But if you go back to Jeremiah 31, as we will in a moment, it doesn't really explain what's going on. Was there another mass murder in Jeremiah's day? And the answer is not exactly. What happened in Jeremiah's day, if you remember, was Jerusalem was destroyed and the Babylonians came in and they carried away a lot of the young men. Including Daniel and, you know, the story of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. Those young men were raised in Israel. And after this war, when Babylonians conquered, they said, "We want a bunch of your young men to serve us." They took them as slaves basically to put them in the king's service. And Ramah was the town north of Jerusalem where they said goodbye. I got this from a footnote. I mean, so it's not written in the Scripture, but it's where they said goodbye to their young men who were as good as dead at that point. They weren't literally killed, but they were taken away to Babylon and would never see them again. So this is the mourning that they had went through once, and it's prophetic of what happened then again in— here is the full record, and you'll see the connection in the very same chapter When Jeremiah talks about this prophecy, he follows it with the promise of the new covenant. He says, "I have surely heard Ephraim's moaning." Ephraim is another word for— it's one of the tribes of Israel. "I have surely heard Ephraim's moaning. I still remember him. Therefore my heart yearns for him. I have great compassion for him," declares the Lord. So they were watching their sons go off to Babylon. Eventually the whole nation got carried away to Babylon. But the Lord says, "I will bring them back from captivity." He promises to bring them back, and that's going to be— because they're in exile, right? They're now exiled to Babylon. He's going to bring them back from captivity and into the New Covenant. "I will make a new covenant." This is again the same chapter, just reading on. "I will make a new covenant with with the people of Israel. It will not be like the covenant I made with their ancestors when I took them by the hand to lead them out of Egypt, because they broke my covenant, though I was a husband to them, declares the Lord. This is the new covenant: I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts. I will be their God and they will be my people. And now as Christians, of course, we know the whole story of what the new covenant represented and how it's a spiritual life that's not connected to a place anymore. It's not in the Middle East. It's not in that land. It's everywhere we go. And it's no longer connected to priesthood. It's wherever we gather. We don't need special garments, although I know that some of the elders in the church would like us to have special garments whenever we speak. I just can't get used to it, you know, that ties. Makes my neck feel like this. So we don't have special garments. That's what— because we have the New Covenant. So we see again in the Scripture this relationship. Israel from Egypt, that Exodus that forms the Mosaic Covenant, is like the Kingdom which came out of exile forms the New Covenant. So that is simply the message I wanted to share, but now we you have to get into the application. And it was— this was scheduled on this date for quite some time now, several months. But— and its topic is this mass murder. But as you know, there have been a number of startling murders in our country, and I wanted to just recall how some of the news over the last month or so and what is our application and how do we respond. And we see the response of— well, we see mourning in those— the mothers that were saying goodbye to their sons or who lost their sons. So we cry, but we also cry out. And we cry out to God. So that is— we cry, "Deliver us from evil," like the Lord's Prayer goes. Deliver us from evil. And we're going to do that in a minute as we pray. There was a Catholic school in Minnesota on August 28th that was shot up in the morning, evidently while they were praying. And an 11-year-old A 10-year-old girl and an 8-year-old boy lost their lives, and there's several more still in very bad condition. There was a Ukrainian girl on her way home from her job at a pizza restaurant stabbed to death for no reason at all in Charlotte, North Carolina just earlier— was it this week or late last week? It was captured on video, very gruesome. Then on September 10th, just a few days ago, a little after noon, a high school student in Colorado went in and shot up his school. Didn't kill anyone else, but injured them very badly and then killed himself. And within minutes of that same incident in Utah, a high-profile influencer named Charlie Kirk was assassinated just for talking. And that gruesome video is— immediately was circulated on the internet. I don't recommend looking at it, but I know a lot of you probably already have. So murder is not something new, although mass murder is very unusual, especially random murder that seems senseless. So I want to respond in two ways. In a minute we will pray, but I want to remember again, these are the words of Jeremiah who wrote the book of Lamentations, and it's only 5 chapters long. I say I said chapter 33, that's wrong. It's chapter 3. My fat finger hit twice on the 3. Chapter 3, in the middle of these 5 chapters of pouring out his heart because he's losing his country. Israel is being taken over by the Babylonians. What could be worse? And yet, right in the middle of it, he says, "My soul is downcast within me, yet." This I call to mind, and therefore I have hope. Because of the Lord's great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail; they are new every morning. Great is your faithfulness. So I wanted to ask Dwight, would you turn off the— or pause the We do not know all things, but you do. You know all things. And we've seen in history how even murders, even exiles As painful as they were and as much mourning for those parents that came out of it, we saw somehow you were able to turn those things for good. And we have seen in our own country these random, reckless, needless murders. One after another just in the last couple weeks. And it seems like your people are part of the—

are—

have been taking some of that pain and also under threat. So Father, I do cry out. I want you to hear our prayer and to know that we cry with those who cry, weep with those who weep, and also we cry out saying, Lord, help. We can't say how to do it. You tell us how you're going to do it. You show us, Lord. Let's pray that somehow it is turned to good. And that just like the bystanders, even the Egyptians, when it was time for the Israelites to leave, even the Egyptians knew their own Pharaoh was in the wrong. They knew they had been in the wrong. They had oppressed them, so they all gave their gold and silver and their jewelry to the Hebrews on their way out. So I pray, Father, that the name of Jesus of Nazareth, who put it all out there for us and who paid the ultimate price, that we remember him and that you have raised him up to be the Lord of Lords and King of Kings. We know, Father, you seem to work behind the scenes in these mysterious and subtle ways, so we're asking you, we're calling you, let there be light! Let there be burning bushes burning. Let your Spirit come up in all the ways that you've designed it to, so that a short time from now, or maybe in months, or maybe a year, we can look back and see this was a turning point where your spirit is indeed real, indeed powerful, and indeed intelligent. We pray these things in Jesus' name. Amen.

Y'all please rise and join us in worship. So this last song is a new song. I just want to sing a part of it just to teach you before we really get into it. But it was on my heart as we were going into this new sermon series, and then also I think As Pastor Paul just mentioned, we definitely need to recognize that we need the name of Jesus. We need Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior, as a solid rock that we're standing on in this difficult time. So if we could just go to— yes, so it just goes like this.

Miracle-making, powerful name of Jesus. On the body raising, prodigal saving, powerful name of Jesus. Look where I'm standing now. Look where I'm standing now. I stand on the chain-breaking, miracle-making, powerful name of Jesus. On the body-raising, prodigal-saving, power The beautiful name of Jesus. Sing, "Led by your mighty." Led by your mighty hand into the promised land. Look where I'm standing now. You carried the cross for me. Now I am a child of the King. Look where I'm standing now. Look where I'm standing now. I stand on the chain-breaking, miracle-making Powerful name of Jesus, on the body raising, prodigal saving, powerful name of Jesus. Hallelujah, I'm free. Hallelujah, I'm free. Jesus Jesus, my Savior who rescued me. Hallelujah, I'm free. Hallelujah, I'm free. Jesus, my Savior who rescued me. Hallelujah, I'm free. Hallelujah, I'm free. Jesus, my Savior, who rescued me. Hallelujah, I'm free. Hallelujah, I'm free. Jesus, my Savior, who rescued me. Hallelujah, I'm free. I stand on the chains Chain-breaking, miracle-making, powerful name of Jesus. On the body risen, prodigal saving, powerful name of Jesus. I stand on the chain-breaking, miracle-making, powerful name of Jesus.— All the bodies raising, prodigal saving, powerful name of Jesus. Hallelujah, I'm free. Hallelujah, I'm free. Jesus, my Savior, who rescued me. Hallelujah, I'm free. Hallelujah, I'm free. Jesus, my Savior, rescued. Hallelujah, I'm free. Hallelujah, I'm free.

You may be seated.

Good morning, everybody. A few announcements for you, but before we do that, is anybody visiting here for your first time? If so, if you could raise your hand or stand up, we'll get a gift to you. If not, let's go on. We'll mention if you need to get to the bulletin— not if you need— if you would like to get to the bulletin, if you go right back, it's at WCC— sorry. It's at wcc.churchcenter.com. Yeah, so if you'll go to the next slide, next slide, there's this opportunity for participating in Feed My Starving Children up in Pottstown, PA. If you're interested in that, get a hold of Ashley Yu. If any of the youth need, what do you call it, the service hours, I don't know if they can do it at the time at 12:30. But anyway, that's something that we'll be doing this coming week. The Fall Festival next Saturday— we still have some needs for people to sign up to help out with the games. It's an opportunity for us to serve the community. And so after the service, if you would like to join and you haven't seen the, the signup sheet, Don there has his computer open. He can sign you up, and I also have mine. So anybody who's interested, I can sign you up or I can send you the link to be able to sign up to help out with the games. The youth will be working from 3:00 to 4:15, and adults from 4:15 to 5:00. Ah, 3:30.

—games, and from 4:15 to 5:00, it's the adults.

Okay, so 3:30 to 4:15, youth can sign up, and then 4:15 to 5:00, adults can sign up for helping with the games. So we need, uh, as I last looked last night, we still need some folks to sign up for that. Don and I both have our computers open, or I can send you a link. Um, the next MomCo will be the 23rd, and I heard raving things about the food that was served there and also that the Q&A was done really well. Mariah Ma did a really good job with that. So if you're a young mom or if you're a mom and would like to join that, just— Stacy's not here, but Don's— sorry, Paul's here. He can give you information on how to do that. I can give you my wife's name. She participates, or Ching Lee. These are folks that you can talk to. That's all I have. Oh yes, Don. Ah, sorry. Yes, okay. Ah, we will be having lunch this Sunday, and so youth, right after the service, if you could go and set up the tables and chairs for us. And generally speaking, we should be having Sunday lunch for the rest of the year except for right around Christmas or New Year. So— oh, next slide. There's one more thing, I think. Yes. So I'm going to go enjoy the beautiful weather. We have this fire pit. We won't be making a fire, but there's tables and chairs right out— I think I have my directions right— right out that area for lunch today rather than sitting inside of a building. So it's a very nice area. And there's like 3 tables, so plenty of room. Come on out. Okay. Now if you would please rise for what we call the doxa. Doxology. I've heard that we use a lot of big words in church like the word doxology. Doxa coming from the Greek word for glory or praise, and logo meaning word. The word of praise or glory that we're going to give together as we sing this. Christians have been doing this for centuries, so join us as we now will sing the doxology. Praise God from whom all blessings flow.

Praise him, all creatures, hear me, Lord. Praise him, above ye heavenly host. Praise Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

Receive a benediction. That's another fancy word. Bene meaning good and diction meaning saying, I guess. A good saying for you. And this comes straight from Lamentations 3 again, slightly reworded for the format. We will never forget this awful time. Time as we grieve over the loss of innocent lives. Yet let us dare to hope. Why? The faithful love of the Lord never ends. His mercies never cease. Great is his faithfulness. His mercies begin afresh every morning. The Lord is our inheritance, so therefore let us hope in him. God bless you. Amen.