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Good morning, everyone. Good morning. With coming of this year's summer season. I hope all of you will enjoy many vacations and barbecues. In Jesus' name, now we start today's worship. Have you ever wondered why instead of vacationing somewhere, I'm here in the church to worship God? With daily reports of wars somewhere on Earth, Earth. Maybe you need a sanctuary to feel the presence of God, or you need the word of God to strengthen your spirit, or the kind of peace that can only come from Heaven. If you need the sanctuary or spiritual strengthening or peace of mind, you are in the right place. Psalm 46:10 says, Be still and know that I am God. Let's pray. Dear Heavenly Father, we thank you for your righteousness and mercifulness. Your righteousness is the reason for our desire to live, and your mercifulness is the reason for our being alive. May our gaze be on you and your words only, so that we won't get lost. In this chaotic world and still enjoy every summer day's vacations and barbecues. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.

Please join me in standing as we praise God. My Jesus, my Savior, Lord, there is none like you. All of my days I want to praise the wonders of your mighty love. My comfort, my shelter, tower, a refuge and strength. Let every breath, all that I am, never cease to worship you. Shout to the Lord, all the earth, let us sing. Power and majesty. Praise to the King! Mountains bowed down and the seas were wrought at the sound of your name. I sing for joy at the work of your hands. Forever I'll love you, forever I'll stand And nothing compares to the promise I have in you. My Jesus, my Savior, Lord, there is none like you. All of my days, I want to praise you. The wonders of your mighty love. My comfort, my shelter, tower of refuge and strength. Let every breath, all that I am, never cease to worship. at the work of your hands. Forever I'll love you, forever I'll stand. Nothing compares to the promise I have in you. Oh, I once held dear, built my life upon all this world. World reveres and wars to own. All I once thought gain, I have counted loss. Spent and worthless now compared to this, knowing you, Jesus. Knowing you, there is no greater thing. You're my all, you're the best, you're my joy, my righteousness, and I love you, Lord. Now my heart's My heart's desire is to know you more, to be found in you and known as yours, to possess by faith what I could not earn, a surpassing gift of righteousness. Knowing you, Jesus, knowing you, there is no greater thing. You're my all, you're the best, you're my joy, my righteousness, and I love you, Lord. Oh, to know the power of your risen life and to know you in your sufferings, to become like you in your death, my Lord, so with you to live and never die. Knowing you, Jesus, knowing you, there is no greater thing. You're my all, you're the best, you're my joy, my righteousness, and I love you, Lord. What gift of grace is Jesus my Redeemer? There is no more for heaven now to give. He is my 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 in weakness and rejoicing, for in my need his power is displayed. To this I hold, my Shepherd will defend me, through the deepest valley he will lead. Oh, the night has been won, and I shall overcome. Yet not I, but through Christ in me. No fate I dread, I know I am forgiven. The future sure, the price it has been paid. For Jesus bled and suffered for my pardon, and he was raised to overthrow the grave. To this I hold, my sin has been defeated. Jesus, now and ever is my plea. The chains are released, I can sing, I am free, yet not I, 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. All the glory evermore to him. When the The race is complete. Still by this shall we be, yet not I, but through Christ in me. To this I hold. My hope is only in Jesus. All the glory evermore to him. When the race is complete, still my vision repeat, yet not I, but through Christ in me. When the race is complete, still my vision repeat, yet not I, but through Christ in me. Yet not I, Yet not I, but through Christ in me. Let's pray. Lord, indeed we thank you for this gift of grace, which we have no part of earning on our own or receiving on our own. It's only what you have done, your Son Jesus on the cross for us, who saved us with the shedding of his blood. And this—

we—

you redeemed us through, through that. And we're so great— we're so thankful for, for this, because that's why we want to serve you and offer ourselves back to you. And we want to follow you and give everything of us back to you for what you have done for us. Help us to complete the race, um, and may we continue to serve others and be a light in this world. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. Before you sit down, uh, stand up and greet each other.

Good morning.

Good morning.

Kathy.

Hi everyone.

Hello.

Um, so today I, uh, for the testimony sharing, um, I'm going to share about, um, a season of my life where God taught me more about his deep love for people. And how, yeah, just Jesus showing me how much he loves people and how I was able to learn a little bit about following the Holy Spirit, even though it can be scary, and, and learning more about God's provision, God's provision and interesting timing. So this is an adventure that I had in, in New York City. I moved to New York City for college in 2009. After my graduation, my pastor asked me to explore how our church could serve our neighbors, because at the time we were— I don't want to say kind of new to the area, but we hadn't fully really explored what it meant to serve our neighbors. So after 9 months of prayer walking every street meeting over 100 people and trying all kinds of activities to connect with people, we found a People of Peace. Um, if you guys are not familiar with People of Peace, those are the people that Jesus, when he sent his 72 disciples out to go out to different towns to tell them the good news, he asked them to look for people that would be receptive to him, to provide for them, help them connect with others and share the gospel. We found our people of peace at a men's shelter right around the corner from our church. The director of this public shelter welcomed volunteers to come and play games with the 175 men, most of whom had a history of substance abuse and faced massive challenges in finding permanent housing and jobs. As we continue to go, we observed, we observed the atmosphere shift tangibly from isolation, shame, and weariness to encouragement and hopefulness in a way that could have been only possible through the Holy Spirit. We started praying after each event outside the shelter, and men and volunteers alike would join, Christians and non-Christians. By God's grace, the shelter let us pray and do Bible studies inside their facility. We would hold social events like picnics, walking around the city, birthdays. That helped us to truly get to know one another, not to mention some Chinese food at midnight. Um, we built— so eventually, by God's grace, we were able to build up trust with these men and also with the surrounding neighbors and the police. Um, we knew them very well, um, and even those that didn't want to talk to anyone started to ask about why we kept coming. So we had lots of opportunities to share about Jesus. Guys started asking spiritual questions and coming to church, eventually also serving. Um, here's a fun fact related to birthdays. Chinese. These guys loved Chinatown fruitcakes. But don't ever think about bubble tea. There was one time I brought 200 bubble teas because I thought they would want bubble tea, but it turns out you can't assume that everybody likes bubble tea. In fact, for those who have not tried it, many people do not like it. Of course it matters what flavor you get. It was a bad call on my part. God made me dependent on him throughout these 7 years in loving some of these neighbors of mine and then loving me. He humbled me and they cared for me just as well as I cared for them. I saw spiritual warfare up close and learned to pray boldly because there were many situations where people would lose their lives if God didn't show up. God also impressed upon me his deep sense of love for people, the kind of love that drives out fear. I definitely made Johnny worry quite a bit during our long-distance relationship, like when the men would come over to my apartment to use the bathroom or take a shower, or when I would visit friends in jail and prison. I was scared too myself at times, but I saw he provided as I offered myself as an instrument of his love to the marginalized. And it's in the trenches of seeing him provide that my trust was built and my faith was able to be built. I want to show some photos. Oh, this is a photo of us eating Häagen-Dazs on free cone day. Everyone loves ice cream. One of my friends, after eating chocolate ice cream, told me, "There must be a God." Can I go to the next slide? Okay, this is the— these are photos of our annual Friendsgiving event which started in my apartment. I cooked a turkey. That was the first time I ever baked any meat. So I just thought— and it was a 26-pound turkey anyway. Hopefully it didn't turn out that bad. And eventually after a few years moved to a proper location with tables and chairs. Next slide, please. Here's a photo of game night, which we did every night for 7 years. One of our volunteers taught people how to sew. Here's 2 of my friends here making me a peanut butter jelly sandwich. Yeah, I think that it was an amazing time, really. And then finally, the next photo. This is from our spring coffee house back in April 2017. And I'll read a reflection that I wrote back then. The coffee house itself was filled with joy, laughter, praise, and applause. Impromptu performances included multiple calls for encores, drumming on a bucket, secretly practicing guitar in the bathroom, clapping in bathrobes, and dancing. Praise was given to God in verbal and nonverbal ways. Oh, I also remember this Spanish rapper. He was hilarious. I had no idea what he was rapping about. Hopefully it was appropriate. People that didn't usually get along had a great time together. Multiple people expressed their desire to return to God. One of the men was predisposed to whistling loudly through his fingers. "The fact that you guys are here all the time and doing this joyfully, I think it might be a sign that I should do something," the whistler reflected. This replaced the normal ambiance of tension, discontentedness, depression, anger, violence, and weariness. Once again, the kingdom of God had truly come to our community, whom he loves. Ministry is really hard, but glimpses of heaven on earth like this are what keep me going. His grace is always enough. Let's be reminded of this. Jesus is so faithful and so loving. He changed my life, allowing me to come alongside him in this adventure of faith. Thank you.

Now is scripture reading, the chance to learn the words of God. Please all stand. This is from Philippians chapter 2. Let's read it together. Meanwhile, I thought I should send Paul Condrell, back to you. He is a true brother, coworker, and fellow soldier, and he was your messenger to help me in my need. I'm sending him because he has been not to see you, and he was very distressed that you heard he was here, and he certainly was here. In fact, he almost died, but God had mercy on him. Send him back to you, for I know you will be glad to see him. Welcome him in the Lord's love and with the great joy people like him deserve, for he risked his life for the work of Christ. And he was at the point of death while doing for me what you couldn't do for me. Now I appeal to you, the audience, and Shinji, please, because you belong to the law, settle your disagreement, as I ask you, my true partner, to help those who women for the cause of the gospel. They walked along with Clement and the rest of you. Their names are written in the Book of Life. Always be full of joy in the Lord. I saw it that way. Rejoice. Let everyone see that you are considerate in all you do. Remember The Lord is near. May God bless his own words. Please sit.

Epaphroditus, what a name. In Greek, actually, it sounds a lot more natural. Epaphroditus. That sounds more— just one syllable. Aprophoditus, not apaproditus, no good. Paul wrote Philippians when he is in prison and facing the death penalty, and yet his mission is very urgent. So he feels, I think he feels a sense of a kind of almost desperation. He's so anxious that the church will continue to move forward despite his absence. And so he writes this letter, and you can see it all through the letter of Philippians, that he wants to pass the torch. He wants to get everybody else involved to take over from what he cannot do. And that's why we're called— we call this series Sharing Responsibility. Now, like, the Pope died recently, so what do they do? They just chose a new Pope. So it seems like Paul could have just said, said, "All right, Timothy is the new apostle, so then he can go ahead and be put to death, and then everything's fine because we've got a new guy in Paul's place." But that is not what he did. He didn't delegate to one man, he delegated to the whole team, the whole nation. And this is what we discussed last week when we compared the structure of an organization in hierarchical structure, which is what Moses did on the advice of Jethro, and compared it to what the kingdom of God looks more like— this AI large language model neural network diagram where each node is connected to every other node. And if you've ever been in a bureaucracy, you've probably felt what— you felt you're wasted because what you can produce is determined by whoever's over you. The boss didn't let you do what you could do, or he even said you couldn't do what you could do. And so there's all this waste. But in this other structure, each node, each person can shine and can produce. And so that is the— what we're looking at and what Paul is trying to encourage people. And we are going to look at through these common people, Epaphroditus and Euodia. Now, when thinking about facing death, you cannot forget the example that Jesus set, knowing that that night the soldiers are going to take him away and that this was his last moment, his, his last communication with his disciples. What did he do? He bowed down and he washed each of their feet. And then he said, since I, your Lord and teacher, have washed your feet, you should watch— wash each other's feet. Don't just watch them, wash them. Now usually when you look at this, you think this is an example of Jesus' great humility. But I want to look at it today as an example of something else, and that is how easy it is to participate, to take part, to help out. It's really not that difficult. And it reminds me, and some of you have heard me share this testimony about how Stacy and I first got involved in church leadership when this place in Guangzhou, a small church in Guangzhou, had lost some of their leaders and they came. The one gentleman was taking over. He came to me and asked if Stacy and I would be willing to join their leadership team. We're like 31 or 32 at the time. I was like, you know, you got the wrong guys. We don't know what— we don't know anything about church leadership. He said, well, we're looking for people who can wash feet. I was like, oh, we can do that. And so that's how it got started, with just a simple willingness. So the bar is low if we are just willing. So who is this Epaphroditus? Well, we don't know much about him. And it's kind of interesting, if you've ever read through the whole book of Philippians, perhaps, chaps in one sitting, and you get to this paragraph about this guy, you probably just skipped over it. Because it appears like Paul has sort of gone out of writing the Bible mode and he's gone into this sort of current business, and it doesn't seem so applicable to us. The facts were, as we just read, that the church at Philippi was giving a gift to Paul when they heard he was in prison. Now the prisons in America, they pretty much as far as I know, the government covers your 3 meals. But my understanding in the ancient world is if you had no family or friend provide for you, then you were not going to eat very well in prison. So the church of Philippi was providing, but they couldn't just go to the bank and send a telegraphic transfer. They had to send somebody, a messenger, to take the money. And evidently Epaphroditus is the one who volunteered to do that. Not only to carry the money. It's roughly 1,000 miles by land and sea to get from Philippi to Rome. And so it was a time-consuming and risky business that he was taking on. I guess, you know, gold pieces or something, hiding them on his person somehow. And when he got there, he stayed in Paul's service for some time, and as we just read, he got very sick. Now the news of his illness reached back to Philippi, And evidently he's kind of embarrassed by it because I thought he may have thought of himself as a go-getter and he's the one that volunteered to take this money and now here he is so sick. But Paul compliments him and says, "This guy is a true brother. He's a coworker. He's a fellow soldier." And he sends him back and encourages the church. He said, pay honor to this man. We should esteem people like him because why? Because of his service, but also that he was willing to take those risks. And I thought Kathy's sharing today was very appropriate that she was taking, obviously taking risks that she said, even I was scared a few times. Whoever has, who's ever been to like the heart of New York New York City and like walked around. If you— I mean, you feel it, right? If you go to New York City, like the smells and the sounds and the speed of everything, and you feel there's this a little bit of not doom, but you feel a little edge. So I lived in New York for like 3 or 4 years, and it wears off, you know, eventually. But it is a little risky. So we should have respect for each other, and that especially for those who are taking risks. Now, who are today's Epaphrodituses? Not hippopotamuses, but Epaphrodituses. And I was recalling when I thought, you know, we should look, look around today, who are these people? And I was reminded of a guy named Richard McCollum in Guangzhou who was part of our church which had found out that there was an orphanage, a Christian orphanage in the far north of China in Heilongjiang Province, a large Christian orphanage, and we wanted to give a gift, a financial gift. So he drove his family with 5 kids in a white van from Guangzhou all the way to Heilongjiang. This is before they had all the superhighway system. It took 3 days to get there. And the kids told me, "We slept in the van." Because I don't know if they couldn't afford a hotel or couldn't find one or they were just in the middle of nowhere when everybody got tired. He took 3 days to get there and he stayed. I think they stayed like 2 weeks and then 3 more days to get back. And it turns out they got in a pretty bad accident when they were there, which I won't bore you with the details. So he definitely was at risk the whole thing. Family was, and they definitely paid for it. And if you're interested, I could tell you more to that story. But that is one example. But another is right here close to home. In fact, just this week I was reminded when Wendy Badalora, who as you know has battled her own issues having— recovering from this concussion, had heard that Nina's husband was on his deathbed. You know Nina Auyung, who comes to our church the Cantonese-speaking Chinese lady. Her husband Bill doesn't come very often. In fact, I think he's only come to some events. I don't think he's actually been to the service before, at least not since I've been here. But he was on his deathbed. In fact, he just passed away the week— on the 13th. And Wendy kind of sprang into action and she just went over and did what she needed to do. And then when Bill passed recently, she was there. She was there before I was. She was helping plan the memorial service. She offered to play the piano. And she just was— really dove into it. And that night or the next day, I wrote Wendy a text. I said, you know, thank you for coming alongside and really helping out. And she wrote back. She said, but I haven't done much. And I thought that's probably what Epaphroditus would would have said. But I haven't done much. He just walked the money over and then he walked back and he got sick. What is there to that? And so many times, the things that we do, just like washing feet, it's not much, right? But that's the whole point, that when you add these things up, they are much. But they're all things that we can do. And that's the point of this sermon, that we do what we can do with the opportunities that we have before us. And then we become just like this example, Epaphroditus. And we should esteem each other. We should encourage each other to do these things and be pleased when we do do them. Or when you get an opportunity like Kathy did to do the testimony, she didn't say, oh no, I can't, I can't do it, right? Did you say yes right away, or did I have to ask you multiple times? It was the second time. Second time. Truth be told, it was the second time. Now, is the first time you declined out of being polite, or you just had too much to do? Do you remember why? I won't put you on the spot. So these are— and so many of you in the Chinese ministry, we call them tonggong. They're called coworkers. There's so many examples, including in this room, that I could mention of people who've gone so far above and beyond the call of duty, who have taken risks going into the city of Wilmington, into Philadelphia, doing these work projects, going all the way to Taiwan. How many of you have been to Taiwan in missions? I know I can see two of you here. And anyone going to Honduras this year? Have you ever been to Honduras before? Have you been there before? A few of you, two of you have and one of you is on your way. Was it a little risky in Honduras? You went to some pretty— I saw the pictures. That looks like there's bugs and snakes and— right? And there's no air conditioning out in those tents. So yeah, they're pretty much on edge. So these guys we should be holding in esteem. In Chinese, we also have this phrase we call "geimianzi," to give face to people. Giving face to someone, geimianzi, is when we know they've done something like that. It may be a small thing, but we just remind them and we just verbalize, and it's a kind of saying thank you. And of course they'll say, "Oh no, no, no." They will deny it or deflect, but still it's a way of acknowledging. Encouraging people to continue to do these small acts of washing feet, those things that are not much. Okay, let's look at Euodia. Who knew that— oops, we're not there yet. Euodia. Who's heard the name Euodia before? Now, I know some of you have read through the whole Bible, but you didn't remember Euodia? Why not? Well, she has a very small part. So it turns out all that Euodia has ever done is she got in a fight with this other lady in the church. That is her claim to fame. And evidently the drama that was created was so disturbing to the church that Paul even made a point of mentioning, "Hey, you guys, settle your dispute." We don't know what the dispute was, but we know that it was getting in the way. Damage was being done. The church was being less fruitful because Because these ladies, they must have been somewhat prominent and they created a bit of a rift. And people were on Euodia's side and some people were on the other lady's side. I don't even know how to say her name. Syntyche is how it looks. So the natural reaction when you have this feud going on is to take sides. Right? So maybe half the church is on the side of the one woman and the other half is the other But Paul goes on, he tells the women, he says, you guys should settle. Then he says to the rest of the church, you should help them settle. Well, I ask you, how do you help people settle their disputes? And if we were in a youth group right now, I'd say, OK, come on, let's hear it. Well, one way is we could urge them. So Paul urged them to settle, so we could also urge them to settle. So when you're off with one or the other of these disputants and they start complaining about the other one, you don't just say, yeah, yeah, yeah, and agree with everything they're saying. You have to push back a little bit and say, remember, maybe you should settle, or is there a way you could settle? And immediately after that is when Paul says, rejoice, and again I say rejoice, that verse everyone's heard. Well, now we know the context. So here, euodia is all, you know, drama, drama, drama. And she wants you to be all— dive in the drama with her. But what if you just stay above it all and you still— you're just rejoicing? And she goes, "What are you smiling about? I'm complaining about this other lady in the church, but you're smiling." Because you say, "I'm doing what Paul says, rejoice." And again, I say rejoice and not get sucked up into it. Immediately after that is when he says we should pray and make all our requests known to God. So that's something we can always pray about. If we've prayed about it, visualize them settling their dispute. That's half the battle. And then he says, the Lord is near. Remember, the Lord is near. And the way I interpret that is that remember the mission. What's at stake is not just Euodia and this other lady. It's what the church is doing, the church's mission. Is suffering. So hey, let's find a way to settle. Now, do we have any euodia today? I'm not trying to call out any factions within the church, but surely there's people that are having a bad day. And when they have a bad day, they might bring some drama into your life. So the, the call or the urging is to help help them, urge them, or push back a little bit on the drama to pray, to rejoice, and to remember the Lord is near. Now, if you've been listening to me previously, you know I will never miss an opportunity to use an Old Testament story to illustrate a New Testament phenomenon. So today we are going to the Old Testament New Testament story about Naaman, which occurred 800 years BC. And he was the commander. He wasn't an Israelite. He was a Syrian, north of Israel, strong. He was the army commander and very successful. But he had a problem. I don't know if you can see those little blotches on his skin. He had leprosy. And so there was just no cure. And it had the whole— he was down about it and his household was down about it. This is his wife moping, artist rendition. But in their household was a servant girl that had come from Israel. And this maid knew about Elisha the prophet and all the miracles that were going on in Israel at the time. And so she said to the wife, she said, "I wish my master would go see the prophet in Israel and he would heal him of his leprosy." Wow, that was news to the wife. The wife told the husband, the husband told the king, and so the king said, "Yes, I will send you with this whole delegation. Go visit the prophet and I'll send a letter of introduction for you to take to the king of Israel." So Naaman started out carrying gifts of silver, gold, and clothing. Well, the letter to the king of Israel said, "With this letter I present my servant Naaman. I want you to heal him of his leprosy." Well, when the king of Israel read this letter, he was really upset. He said, "Am I God and I can give life and take it away? How am I going to heal his leprosy?" I can see this Syrian is just trying to pick a fight with me. And this is because the king in those days didn't know much about Elisha and what he could do. He wasn't really a believer. And that's why God had sent the prophets, is because the kings were off track. But when Elisha the man of God heard that the king of Israel had torn his clothes in dismay, he sent this message to him, 'Why are you so upset?' Here's the messenger. 'Why are you so upset? Send Naaman to me, and he will learn that there is a true prophet here in Israel.' Now the question is, how did Elisha know? It says he heard that the king of Israel had torn his clothes. So that meant that there was these epaphrodituses in the middle, messengers who knew that it would be relevant servant who knew, "Hey, this is something Elisha ought to know," and who took word to him. So when the king heard that Elisha is willing to take over this trouble, of course, he immediately sent Naaman, "Go over to Elisha's house." Well, when he got there, it wasn't really a grand palace or anything at all, but he said, "I'm here to be healed, and here's all the payment I'm willing to pay for it, but Elisha didn't even come out to greet him. Elisha sent his messenger to him with a message: "Go wash yourself 7 times in the Jordan River. Then your skin will be restored and you'll be healed of your leprosy." Was Naaman happy to hear that? Look at his posture. He's already not so happy that the man himself wouldn't even come. He's like the number 2 guy in all of Syria. And you didn't even come out to meet me? You sent a message? You sent this servant? And now he responds like this: I thought he would certainly come out to meet me. I expected him to wave his hand over the leprosy and call on the name of the Lord or something. Aren't there any rivers of Damascus better than the rivers of Israel? Why shouldn't I wash in them and be healed? So Naaman turned and he went away in a rage. But that's not the end of the story. One of Naaman's men said to him, Sir, if the prophet had told you to do something difficult, something very difficult, wouldn't you have done it? So you should certainly obey him when he says simply, go and wash and be cured Well, that was irrefutable logic, wasn't it? But it took a common soldier, one of his men, to bring that to his attention, to stop him, to push back against his natural inclination to be upset. So Naaman went down to the Jordan River, he dipped himself 7 times as the man of God had instructed him, and sure enough, the skin became healthy as the skin of a young child, and he was healed. So we saw in this story four common, ordinary, unsung heroettes and heroines. The housemaid who gave hope to Naaman through his wife that he could be healed, told him about the prophet. Then the one who let Elisha know there's this crisis brewing in the king— in in the palace and you need to do something about it. Then the messenger who gave Naaman the news about what it would take to be healed. And finally, the man who helped Naaman to talk him out of running away and into simply doing that low bar, that low expectation of what he could do. All of these did not much, and yet what they did together was everything and made the whole story story turn. Now, as I was finishing this message, I thought, you know, maybe there's a lesson not only in this for us, that not only we are to push back on others when we see them going off, but also we need to listen. Maybe you were the one that's off track, to listen to other people, maybe the— someone who we might not ordinarily listen to, because that may be exactly the people through whom God is speaking, and to not dismiss so easily the words of younger people or people that are maids or people that aren't so important. So God gives us these small challenges that are attainable. I had a business consultant once. I had a company, and the company CEO is supposed to set the goals and get everybody in the I don't need to work towards the goal. And the consultant said the trick is to make the goal hard enough that people will, you know, have to work for it, but not so hard that it's impossible. And he used this analogy of somebody climbing up a pegboard where he's got a peg in this board and another peg. The next hole has to only be this much higher so he can pull himself up again and get the next one and a little bit higher and pull himself up. So all of these attainable goals, we can make real progress. And through each person doing their small part, something much greater than ourselves is taking place. We can't all go slay Goliath, but we can all wash feet. Now, you're going to probably remember some missed opportunities and some times that when you think back on it when you didn't pushed back, or when you didn't listen to advice, or when you didn't serve in a way that you could. And I just want you to not beat yourself up over those, because there's the past ones. Because as Paul says in Philippians, we don't look back, we're looking ahead. And I promise you, if you're looking for it, you will see plenty of new opportunities every day. The— we had a memorial service for Bill Houghton yesterday morning, and many people shared their memories, and it was a very nice service. But then we reserved Nina, the wife, to be the last speaker at the end, and she, she only shared one thing, and it was from the very— towards the very end of Bill's life when he was had all these medical issues. And as you can imagine, they're in Philadelphia, he's just gone to some hospital, he's gotten some treatment, and they have a few hours. And if I remember correctly, it was Valentine's Day, or was either like right around Valentine's Day. So they had this chance to go out for a walk around Philly. So this is their like personal time in the midst of all this illness and everything else. And she said evidently he had enough medicine that it kind of given him a little bit of a kick kick. So he was, he was having a little high moment. But they get out in the streets of Philadelphia, and sure enough, there's some lady in the middle of the street in a wheelchair. And he said, what, what's going on? He goes over to the lady in the wheelchair, and it turns out she's mentally ill or something. But he figures out where she needs to go, and he pushes her wheelchair 11 blocks, according to Nina. And that is like the key memory that she wanted to share with everyone about what her husband was like. Now, you're not going to encounter very many mentally ill people in the middle of the street in a wheelchair, but there will be things, and you'll recognize them, and you can do them. But if you don't, don't worry, there will be another chance tomorrow. Now, the story of Naaman doesn't quite end there. It goes on with one little part that gives a counterexample of the servant who not only didn't do the right thing, he actually did the wrong thing. And if you remember the story, when Naaman is healed, he goes back to the home of Elisha and he offers gold, silver, and garments. And if you can see here, Elisha says, "No, I don't want it. Just give glory to God." I forget the exact words. But the servant Gehazi is watching, and he's saying, "Come on, Elisha, we should at least—" And he's saying, "No." So away they went. But Gehazi, according to the— I'm reading from the Scripture now— the servant of the man of God said to himself, "My master should not have let this Syrian get away without accepting any of his gifts. As surely as the Lord lives, I will chase after him and go get some something from him. So Gehazi set off, chased after Naaman. And when Naaman saw— when Naaman saw Gehazi running after him, he climbed down from his chariot and went to meet him. "Is everything all right?" Naaman asked. "Yes," Gehazi said, "but my master has sent me to tell you that there's two prophets from the hill country of Ephraim that just showed up. He would like 75 pounds of silver and 2 sets of clothing to give him. Whoa. And so Naaman says, by all means, I will give you twice as much. And he loads him up with silver and garments. So Gehazi took the gifts, he went back home, and he hid them in the house somewhere. Then when next time he saw him, Elisha asked, where have you been, Gehazi? 'Gehazi, I haven't been anywhere,' he replied. But Elisha asked him, 'Don't you realize that I was there in spirit when Naaman stooped down from his chariot to meet you? Is this the time to receive money and clothing? Because you have done this, you will suffer from Naaman's leprosy.' And when Gehazi left the room, he was covered with it. So this is the reason I wanted— well, the story gives it for us. It draws the contrast between good and bad in very stark terms. So I don't want us to— if we fall short a little bit from time to time, I don't want us— as long as we don't put ourselves in that category, we're okay. We're going to have more opportunities to do what Wendy said. It's not much, but it really does add up. And this came home to me in the final illustration before I end. When I was 6 years old, and I still remember this because it was the first Super Bowl and they made a big deal out of it, and we were watching, and the Green Bay Packers won. And at the end of the game, the players took the coach and they lifted him up up on their shoulders, and this is before Gatorade. They lifted him up on their shoulders and they walked him around and out the stadium. And I was confused. I said, "Dad, why are they lifting up that guy? They should be lifting up the players, not the coach." And he said, "Son, the coach is the most important player out there." And of course, I couldn't understand that because he wasn't even on the field, right? He was back on the bench. And the reason I wanted to share this is how we are like the players. And maybe they had 45 guys on the team, and one guy just took this piece of leather and ran it over there, another guy threw it through the air, another guy caught it, another guy knocked somebody else down, and then he knocked somebody else down. So what each one of them did wasn't that great, but together they did, and it gave glory to the team and to the coach. And this is kind of how the things that we do in church gives glory to God, and we're carrying him on our shoulders. And so, therefore, my dear brothers and sisters, be strong and immovable, and always work enthusiastically for the Lord, for you know that nothing we do for the Lord is ever useless. Thank you.

Yeah, let's stand again and respond. To the message with this song. What gift of grace is Jesus 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.— 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 hope, my Shepherd will defend me. Through the deepest valley he will lead. Oh, the fight has been won, and I shall overcome. Yeah, not I, but through Christ in me. No fate I dread, I know I am forgiven. The future sure, the price it has been paid for Jesus' blood and suffering. He suffered for my pardon, and he was raised to overthrow the grave. To this I hold, my sin has been defeated. Jesus now and ever is my plea. The chains are released, I can sing, I am free. Yet not I, but through Christ in me. With every breath I long to follow Jesus, for he has said I know 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. All the glory evermore to him. When the race is complete, still my vision repeat, yet not I, but through Christ in me. To this I hold, my hope is on Jesus. All the glory evermore to him. When the race is complete, still my dishonored be, and not I, but through Christ in me. When the race Grace is complete, still my vision repeat. Yet not I, but through Christ in me. Yet not I, but through Christ in me. Yet not I, but through Christ in me. You can be seated.

Good morning, everyone. My name is Michael, and if there's anybody who's here for the first time, we have a small gift we'd like to give to you, and in it there's a contact card that you can fill out and we can get back with you on information that's occurring here at church. And I have a reverb. Thank you. If not, let's go to the next slide and some announcements. We will be having a blood drive next Saturday. And so if you're here and want to give blood— no, seriously, if you would like to give blood to help others, the blood drive is here. Stacy is standing in the back. She can help. She can get you signed up for it. There's a QR code, but we found out that the QR code may not be working that we've put posted in different places. So Stacy is there, she'll get you signed up, just takes a few seconds. VBS is upcoming, registration is still ongoing, there's forms in the hallway as you walk out. There's also sign-up forms for volunteers for some of the things that we need volunteers to sign up for. And also a WANA registration, the WANA registration is in the main entrance area, the forms are there. There is the Hokkaido 4th of July parade. Paul is here. He'll sign you up if you'd like to join us for that, join him. Unfortunately, I won't be there. And then more details are in the bulletin, and the bulletin is at that website, wcc.churchcenter.com. And the rest you can read yourself. If you would please stand up for the doxology. Holy Ghost!

Praise Father, Son, Holy Ghost! Amen.

Okay, our benediction comes from the book of Numbers 6, and there it says that "The Lord said to Moses, tell Aaron," to Aaron and his sons, this is how you are to bless Israel. Say to them— and the rest is very familiar to you, I know, but I just want to give you the context— the Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord make his face shine on you and be gracious to you. The Lord turn his face toward you and give you peace. Go in peace to love and serve the Lord.