Advancing the Kingdom in 2026

to the Ruled Church Podcast. This is my beloved son, with whom I am well pleased.

He is honored, and I get the glory. And by the way, it's even better, because you see that building in Perryville, Arkansas?

You see that one in Pechote, Mexico? Do you see that one in Tuxla, Guterres, down there in Chiapas? That building has my son's name on it.

The church is not a democracy, it's a monarchy. Christ is king. You can't be

Christian without a local church. You can't do anything better than to bend your knee and bow your heart, turn from your sin and repentance, believe on the

Lord Jesus Christ, and join up with a good Bible -believing church, and spend your life serving

Jesus in a local, visible congregation. We are in Matthew 6 on Sunday nights.

We've been walking through the model prayer, and we've made it to verse 10a,

I should say, by kingdom come. Last week, we considered the first two aspects of praying by kingdom come, beginning with the kingdom arranged, if you remember.

We talked about God's sovereign plan originating even in eternity past, but unfolding in Eden through Adam, disrupted, if you will, by the fall, yet progressively promised and foreshadowed throughout the

Old Testament. And then we see that with covenants, with Noah and Abraham and Moses and David, culminating in the kingdom of faith that is experienced by the

Old Testament saints, but they never, they anticipate it, but they never fully enter in in the sense of, they never fully experience in the sense that it arrives in Christ, and that was our second point.

It is the church. Jesus is the royal descendant of David, Matthew's gospel reveals to us.

He overcomes Satan's temptations. He fulfills perfect obedience to the law.

He dies as a ransom for sinners under the wrath of God, and he rises again to establish his reign in the hearts of his people, manifested visibly in local churches as we pray for its growth and purity and expansion.

Let me just share in Matthew, right, hopefully. So turn over to Matthew 16 for a second.

This is Matthew's understanding of the kingdom. Jesus explains this.

You know, verse 18, we talk about that all the time, but think about verse 19. So Matthew 16, 18,

Jesus says, and I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock, I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.

And then he says this, verse 19, I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.

Listen, this is not an exposition tonight of that verse, but let me just tell you this, that Jesus says,

I'll give the keys to the kingdom of heaven, to the church. What do keys do? They open and shut gates.

That is, the church has the responsibility to open and shut the gates to the kingdom, to the lost and dying world.

The church is the kingdom, the kingdom visible on earth. So we're working through this in a prayer as Jesus teaches us to pray thy kingdom come.

So what does it mean to pray thy kingdom come? Well, tonight, we're gonna talk about the advance of the kingdom.

So could we just stand? We'll honor the reading of God's word here. I'll read this text, then

I'll pray. Verse, I'll go ahead and read the prayer, verse 19, 13.

Jesus says, pray then like this. Our father in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.

And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. Let's pray. Father, would you help us to understand the advancement of your kingdom tonight?

We pray, oh God, that you would give us a burning heart for your kingdom's growth.

Lord, first and foremost, that begins right here. Lord, there are areas of my life and my thoughts and my actions and my attitudes and my motivation that need to continue to come further under and under and under your rule and your reign.

God, may the kingdom expand its growth even in my own heart and in the hearts of the people of Providence.

And beyond that, we pray, oh God, for your kingdom to advance in Perry County. Lord, we know that you are sovereign over this county, but your kingdom doesn't have full expression in every heart and so we pray that it would.

We pray, oh God, for the conversion of these people. And if we're not gonna pray for them, who will?

There are some 10 ,200 or so souls in Perry County. And God, we pray that the kingdom would arrive in each of their hearts.

So help us to be zealous towards preaching the gospel of the kingdom. Lord, we pray for our sister churches, churches that we're closely partnered with right now, like By the

Word Baptist in Azle and Trinity Baptist in Port Arthur. We pray for our pastor friends in Mexico, Felipe and Juan Carlos, Pastor Christian and Gustavo, Rudolfo, Noberto, Daniel.

We pray, oh God, that you would bless and keep these men. Lord, may your kingdom advance through their preaching.

We thank you, oh God, for your goodness to us and let us not lose sight of your mission.

We pray it in Jesus' name, amen. You may be seated. So there's at least four points and we've covered two and we're gonna cover one tonight.

So we talked about the kingdom arranged. We talked about the kingdom arrived through the gospel, through what

Christ has done. And tonight, the third point, but the only point for tonight, the kingdom advanced.

So Jesus teaches his disciples that we ought to pray. It ought to be a regular pattern of our prayers to pray for the kingdom of Christ to advance.

Let me just say something to us. Often our prayers, when we talk about praying, we're worried about these physical things.

It's not wrong to pray for that, okay? But we're worried about these physical things. I've got a doctor's appointment next week.

I've got financial issues. I've got this or that thing. And sometimes what is absent in our prayers is the advancement of the kingdom of Christ.

And Jesus is teaching his disciples to pray for the advancement of his kingdom.

That's what we talk about tonight, the kingdom advanced. Your kingdom comes. So the kingdom has arrived by the finished work of Christ in Acts right now on Sunday mornings.

We're seeing this unfold. We see King Jesus seated on David's throne. We see the kingdom being restored to Israel.

That is the eschatological Israel, true Israel, the church of which Christ is head.

The kingdom has arrived, but it has not met its final consummation.

Therefore, it is presently on its advance. And so Jesus teaches us to pray, your kingdom come, verse 10.

Now, I don't take this as a promise that it's one day gonna be the majority of the world.

I don't think that's what we're being taught here. I think the promise is that the kingdom is going to continue to advance to the glory of God, even in the face of opposition.

God gets glory as Jesus rescues his people, undeserving sinners, not because opposition is done away with, but even in spite of opposition,

God is gonna get the glory in saving sinners. Or I could put it to you this way. There will never be a time in the history of the church that we cannot pray

Matthew 6 10, your kingdom come. We are not awaiting a day in which we arrive at the consummation of the kingdom and then

Jesus returns. No, it's when Jesus returns that the kingdom will be consummated, if that makes sense.

When Jesus comes back, the kingdom will take over the whole world because then all opposition will be done away with, cast off forever.

So here's a good summary quote from James Montgomery Boyce. He says, when we pray thy kingdom come, we ask first that God's gracious rule may come in us.

And second, that it might come through us to others. Moreover, we take confidence in the fact that it will one day come fully in power in the personal rule of the

Lord Jesus Christ at the end of history. This is what we're praying. So here's a good, as we begin the sermon, here's an important question to ask before we get into anything else.

Have you prayed this prayer personally? Even kids, listen to this for just a second.

Have you prayed this prayer personally? Maybe not verbatim, but has there been some time in your life that you've prayed, oh,

Lord Jesus, may your kingdom come first and foremost in my own heart, in my own life.

Have you surrendered to Christ? Have you been made a glad recipient of the kingdom?

Because whatever else, I'm gonna say some important things tonight, but whatever else I say tonight, is ultimately going to be meaningless to you, if not first and foremost, you are found in Christ.

Before you worry about Christ's rule anywhere else, you must first be concerned with his rule in your own heart.

So what if you're part of a church, at least outwardly, part of a church that is advancing the kingdom in Mexico, advancing the kingdom in other parts of Arkansas, advancing the kingdom in other parts of the

United States, if outwardly you're giving to that, and you're attending a church that is involved in those things, so what if Christ's reign is not present in your own heart?

Children, listen, listen. Your parents, that Christ is advancing the kingdom, and your parents, they're followers of Christ, but listen, that does not do anything for you until you are surrendered to Christ.

You understand, children? Thy kingdom come must first happen in your heart.

Adults, this is true for us as well. Now, Christ's kingdom is advancing at this moment, and I'm going to mention three ways how it is advancing.

So we are to pray, thy kingdom come, and as we pray this, you need to know that these three things are happening in the world today, and they are all part of the advancement of the kingdom of Christ.

Number one, the enemy is bound. Now, you've got to listen to this very carefully, and let's work through this.

Yes, this reveals my eschatology, I get it, but walk through this with me for a moment. First, let me mention this unapologetically.

There is absolutely great opposition to the gospel today in the world. Satan is the church's great enemy, and he is actively opposing the gospel.

He has the destruction of families. Do not think that our society today is immune from the influence of Satan.

Do not think that the destruction of babies in the womb is only the design of fallen man.

Do not think that the idea of introducing communism, Marxism, all these things that we see, do not think that it's just merely, oh, men just happen to think this.

There's satanic influence in these things. Satan is the great destroyer of families and societies and churches, and he is prowling around, the

Bible says, like a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour. This is true.

Nevertheless, what is also true is that he is on borrowed time. You understand that what

Jesus did when he was nailed to the cross and he rose again from the grave, he did just what the

Bible promised he would. He dealt a death blow to Satan. He crushed his head.

Now, Satan is not eradicated now. We've just gone through that. He's still very much active, but he has been severely injured by the work of Christ.

John 12, 31 says, now is the judgment of the world. Now will the ruler of this world be cast out.

Satan has been cast out in the sense that he does not have the ability anymore to keep the nations in darkness.

You understand? Think with me for a second back to the Old Testament. In the Old Testament, you have this dark world, and in the

Old Testament, you have the nation of Israel, but even that nation is largely unconverted, and yet within that nation, you have true

Israel, a tiny light, as it were, in the midst of the darkness over the face of the whole earth.

But now, we celebrate this at Christmas, right? Now, the light has come. The light has come.

Born in Bethlehem, the light of life has come, and King Jesus has conquered, and in his conquering, he has bound

Satan in this sense. Satan cannot stop the advancement of the kingdom. Now, we face battles every day, and the church battles every day, and every year, every decade, and every season, the church will have battle, battle, battle, battle, battle, battle.

Got it. The war's already over, though. It's already won. Yes, we're gonna have battles.

Yes, we're gonna have to face various persecutions, trials.

We get it, but the war has been won in Christ, and the kingdom is advancing now because Satan is unable to stop its advancement because he has been wounded, mortally so, in the work of King Jesus.

So, number one, the enemy bound. Number two, the kingdom advances by evangelist broadcasting.

Now, it's a little cute with the alliteration, I guess, but the text says your kingdom come, and we're considering tonight how the kingdom advances, and it doesn't just advance because Satan has a limited ability to stop its advancement, but there's also a positive aspect, and that's what

I mean by evangelist broadcasting. The kingdom advances through the preaching of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

And now, I know using the word evangelist may conjure up in your mind, it's only a certain class of people, but let me just tell you what

I mean, authorial intent of the preacher, right? What I mean by that is the whole church has the responsibility to proclaim

Jesus. That's even women. Ladies, you have the responsibility, in a very real sense, to preach

Christ in the way that you're doing it with your children. You are proclaiming

Jesus to your children, at least I hope you are, right? We're not using it in the sense of giving a sermon or authoritative sermon or out there street preaching, but ladies, you have a responsibility to proclaim

Christ. It's not just a men's job. Ladies, proclaim Christ to your children, first and foremost, it's a first and foremost responsibility.

Also, I hope there are others around you, other ladies that you're able to disciple and talk to and point to Christ.

Men, we have a responsibility, dads, not just with our wives and with our children, but also, too, in our workplaces, in our areas of influence.

Then, of course, we do have special men. Preaching is a man's call in the sense of opening the scriptures and saying, and thus saith the

Lord. So we have evangelists sometimes called within the church and preachers called within the church to publicly declare the gospel.

The whole church is called to assist in prayer, passing out tracts as you're able, joining together and fulfilling this great commission given to us by our

King, and that is proclaiming the gospel. I'm just arguing for a moment tonight that the kingdom advances through the proclamation of the gospel.

It's not just the negative, Satan has been bound, there's also a positive, Satan has been bound, let's go.

We proclaim Christ through the heralding of the gospel, the kingdom advances.

So, you know this, you get this all the time, but let's be clear about something. If the kingdom advances through the heralding of the gospel, and it does, then we need to be crystal clear on the gospel.

I hope, and maybe this is wrong, I'm not gonna do this because Perry County is filled with, let's say, the second amendment proponents.

So I'm not gonna sneak into your house at 3 a .m. and wake you up, but if I was brave and I did that, and I woke up and I went to your house at 3 a .m.,

Monty, wake up, wake up, Monty, what is the gospel? I would hope that after the weapon is put away and the sleep is out of his eyes, that in about 30 seconds, he'd be able to say, well, this is the gospel.

You understand the illustration? I'm just trying to say that I would hope that Providence Baptist Church is always able to be crystal clear on what the gospel is, and I'm gonna take an opportunity to do that in just a moment.

Let me say some things clearly. The gospel's not, and this gets around town sometimes, it's around, and you just believe this way, but the gospel's not,

I serve you in the name of Jesus. You do something nice for someone, you clean someone's yard, you take the trash out and say,

I serve you in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, amen. Well, I'm not saying that's a bad thing that you did, but I am gonna say this, that's not the gospel.

It's not Jesus loves you. We can talk about the depths of Jesus' love. You don't understand love unless you know

God and Christ. Jesus has an unfathomable love. Well, the gospel is not, and every one time in the scripture where you say, no one ever tells us in scripture, go out and just tell people

Jesus loves you. It's a hard world, people are discouraged, they're thinking about suicide, they just need to know

Jesus loves them. Now, I'm not saying that it's a bad thing to have those kind of conversations, but just understand this, that's not the gospel,

Jesus loves you. A friendly smile is not the gospel.

Passing out a trinket, buying someone's meal, those are not the gospel.

The gospel is a specific message, and it demands a specific response.

The specific message is, the King has come, Jesus Christ, truly

God, truly man, born of the Virgin Mary. He has exemplified and earned perfect righteousness.

He has fulfilled every promise and prophecy and jot and tittle of the law.

He has laid down his life willingly as a ransom for many in the place of sinners.

He has suffered under the righteous wrath of a holy God to make propitiation for the sins of his people.

He has died, he has resurrected from the grave in victory. He has ascended to the right hand of God, the

Father Almighty, and he is seated at the throne from which he will turn to judge the living and the dead and gather this church unto himself.

That's the gospel. It is a specific, I'm saying to you, it is a specific message, and it cannot be communicated with a line of,

Jesus loves you, or God is good, or let's be nice and friendly. If I gathered all the children in here and I said,

I wanna share with you the gospel tonight, and I just said, let's sing this song, God is so good.

I'm not gonna sing it. God is so good, God is so good. He's so good to me.

He cares for you, he cares for you, he cares for you. God is so good.

Amen, let's pray, go home. Has the gospel been shared? No. No, it has not.

And you have to be careful because there are many things that we can do and many ideas that churches can have and many conversations even when the gospel's not actually shared.

But the gospel is a specific message, and if we're not sharing the specific message, if we're not proclaiming and preaching and teaching this message, teaching it to our children, teaching it to the neighbors, proclaiming it from the rooftops, then we are not proclaiming the gospel.

And remember, the kingdom advances through the proclamation of this message. This specific message, and I told you earlier, this specific message demands a particular response.

You're in Matthew 6, turn back to Matthew 4. A lot of times people, now I don't do this, we shouldn't do this, but I'll just,

I'll do it anyway tonight to make a point. A lot of people say, you know, I just wanna hear what

Jesus said. I just wanna hear what Jesus said. Now, the whole Bible from Genesis to Revelation, that's what

Jesus said, amen. But if you want to use an example in context,

Jesus says, pray your kingdom come. Well, how does he tell people to respond to the gospel?

This is it, Matthew 4, 17. This is not the only place, but it's the easiest place, and it is representative of the way we are called to respond.

So the text says, from that time Jesus began to preach, saying, repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.

So you need to understand, two things come in the proclamation of the gospel.

There is the gospel proper, which is what I just said, and also the response demanded.

So you're not just giving a bare list of facts, this is what Jesus did, but you're also in proclaiming the gospel, whether that's to your children, your neighbor, your coworker, or you're preaching at harps, in proclaiming the gospel, you're not just giving the bare facts, but you're also giving, this is the intended response, the only acceptable response, namely what?

Repentance, turning from sin and turning to Christ. Now, theologically, we might tease that out and say, it's faith alone and Christ alone, but we also understand that biblical repentance is not separated from saving faith.

So there's no such thing as a soul turning to Christ that results in anything less than turning away from sins.

So we say the response demanded by the gospel preaching is this, repent and believe the gospel.

What a lost person needs is not a hug. Okay, sometimes they need a hug,

I get it, right, okay. But you understand what I'm saying, what they need above all else, yes, yes, let's clothe them, let's feed them, let's show them love and kindness.

Of course, I'm not against those things. Don't walk out of here and say, he doesn't even care about someone being hungry.

Yeah, I do care about them being hungry, but I just know I've seen a lot of people do all these kinds of things to take care of physical needs and they're not taking care of the soul.

What if we warm people and feed people and then we send them cozy and well fed on their way to hell?

We must give them the gospel. What a lost person needs is the righteousness of Christ applied to their account, imputed to their account.

The righteousness that Jesus earned as a man to be given to men and women and boys and girls, those who trust him.

Lost persons need to be forgiven of their sins, which Jesus earned by shedding his blood on the cross as a sacrifice for sinners under the wrath of God, making atonement for sin.

This is the gospel and this is what the gospel demands. Turn, believe, look, repent.

And I'm saying to you, it is through the declaration of these truths. I love that woman so much.

It's through the declaration of these truths that the gospel advances.

It's not governments, it's not laws, it's not crusades, it's not coercion. It is when the church of God preaches the gospel of God that the kingdom advances in the hearts of men, women, boys, and girls.

Martin Lloyd -Jones says, when we pray, thy kingdom come, we are praying for the success of the gospel, its sway and power.

We are praying for the conversion of men and women. We are praying that the kingdom of God may come today in Britain, in Europe, in America, in Australia, everywhere in the world.

Thy kingdom come is an all -inclusive missionary prayer. Are you praying?

So Jesus says, this is how you pray. His disciple, well, not in this specific time, they're not asking how to pray.

He's teaching in the context of the Sermon on the Mount. This is how you pray. So let me ask you, are we praying in this way?

Do you want to see the kingdom advance in this nation, in all nations? Then we must pray this prayer and we must seek to be about the proclamation of the gospel.

That's here, that's Mexico, that's all places. We pray and we go. Okay, thirdly, the kingdom advances by the enemy -bound evangelist broadcasting.

Thirdly, enemies born again. So this gospel comes to a rebel soul and the spirit of God takes that rebel soul, opens their eyes, regenerates their hearts, moves them from the kingdom of darkness to the kingdom of light.

Colossians 1, 21 and 22 says, and you who were once alienated and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds, he has now reconciled in his body of flesh by his death in order to present you holy and blameless and above reproach before him.

The kingdom advances because the enemies are born again. There is

Christ's kingdom and then there are those outside Christ's kingdom and there is no middle ground.

There are those who are in the kingdom and they are friends of God and they are in Christ and there are those who are outside the kingdom and they are enemies of God and they are in danger of being cast off forever in the lake of fire, which again,

I emphasize, it's around today because of Kirk Cameron, but I emphasize, eternal conscious torment in the lake of fire and to deny that is ultimately to undermine the gospel and it actually is a road to at least a road to apostasy.

But here's what happens when the gospel is proclaimed. God causes some of his enemies to be born again and this is how the kingdom advances.

John 3, 3 says, "'Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again, "'he cannot see the kingdom of God.'"

So as the enemy is bound from total deception and as the evangelist broadcast the gospel, the

Holy Spirit does a mighty work. He answers the prayer of Jesus in Matthew 6, 10.

Have you thought about it? When you pray, thy kingdom come and when you see someone born again by the power of God in the gospel, you are seeing the

Holy Spirit answer that prayer. The Spirit of God takes the gospel of Christ and causes the enemies of God, their hearts to melt.

He gives them ears to hear, he gives them eyes to see, he removes the heart of stone and replaces it with a heart of flesh.

He brings about regeneration. There is no hope for the advancement of the gospel without the

Holy Spirit's work in the hearts of rebels. John Owen says, "'Regeneration is expressly required in the gospel "'to give a right and privilege unto an entrance "'into the church or kingdom of Christ, "'whereby that kingdom of his is distinguished "'from all other kingdoms in and of the world "'unto an interest wherein "'never any such thing was required.

"'It must of necessity be something better, "'more excellent and sublime "'than anything the laws and policies of men "'pretend unto or prescribe.

"'It is a beautiful kingdom, "'and you only enter it one way, being born again.'"

I'll use Alex as an example. In a very few weeks, just a couple of weeks,

Alex is gonna take his citizenship test or whatever they do on January 6th.

He's gonna take a test, and if he passes the test, by the way, do not challenge him right now about your knowledge of American politics, history, all that.

He will dominate you. He's been studying. He's gonna be ready. He's gonna pass the test.

I'm confident of that, and he's going to become a part of this kingdom that is the American Republic.

Now, you can't do that to get into the kingdom of Christ.

There's not a test. There's not a test that I can give you, and if you just study really, really hard and you just do your best, you'll pass the test, and then we'll welcome you into the kingdom of God.

No, no, no, the entrance is only one way. The entrance is Christ through the regenerating work of the

Holy Spirit of God. You must be born again. What glory there is in this kingdom,

Christ reigning in the hearts of men is the kingdom, because in regeneration, we have a total makeover of the dead, unfeeling, rebellious heart, and it is now alive, and its affections are now toward Christ and the things of Christ.

Oh, you can fake it for a while being an unbeliever and pretending to be around the church, but those unregenerate affections, they're gonna have mastery over you at some point, but when you're born again, your affections are changed.

You're given new affections. The new heart loves the church. The new heart loves the

Bible, loves the king. The king's law is written upon it. It is tender to the mercies of Jesus.

It is compassionate towards lost souls. It is zealous for God's glory, and so many more things that we could say.

This is the glory of regeneration. This is what it means to be born again, and this is how the kingdom advances today, and this gives us great hope, for if it were tests or if it were feats of strength, if it were some sort of thing that you could do, well, then you would just be hopeless and running around and running around and running around, but instead, we proclaim what

Jesus has done, and we trust the Holy Spirit to work, because he will work, and this is what it means to pray thy kingdom come, that God's reign through Christ in the hearts of men would advance.

Is this your prayer? Do you pray this? Is this a desire of your heart?

Parents, even tonight, would you pray? Would you pray for your children? And maybe even you could pray in this way.

Oh God, may your kingdom advance in the hearts of my children. Is this your participation?

Meaning, are you not just praying for this, but are you also involved in the advancement of the kingdom through the proclamation of the gospel?

Parents, again, we'll use our children as an example. Don't just pray that God's kingdom would advance in the hearts of your children, but also tell them the gospel.

Same thing for your neighbors and your coworkers and your family and your cousin in Idaho. Don't just pray that God's advance, the kingdom would advance in their heart, but participate in bringing the gospel to them.

Is this your power? Meaning, is the Holy Spirit in you pressing you toward this great endeavor?

Are you trusting his work in the hearts of people? Finally, I would ask, is this your peace?

Kind of end where we began. Does Christ reign in your own heart? Have you been born again?

Are you trusting this gospel? Let me close with a quote from Puritan Thomas Hooker.

He says, we desire the king's government should enlarge the territories more and more.

So we desire not only that Christ should be revealed, but that more and more should be gathered, that God may be taken in everywhere and that every knee may bow to Christ.

Jesus teaches his disciples to pray, thy kingdom come. And what we've considered tonight is that this kingdom is advancing right before our eyes.

And as we pray this prayer, and we must pray this prayer, as we pray this prayer, these are the things that are taking place.

And these are the ways that disciples of Christ act out upon the doctrine which they pray.

Let's pray now. Father, we pray that your name would be hallowed. And we pray that the kingdom of Christ would come.

Lord Jesus, would you reign in the hearts of every soul in this church. I think about all the children represented.

And I think about, as I was talking to them specifically, how several of them were listening and responding and thinking.

And oh God, would you just take the words of the scriptures and press them deeply upon their hearts.

Even tonight, may there be one or two or more born again and look to Christ, repenting of their sins and believing the gospel, even tonight.

We pray, oh God, that we would take seriously our involvement in the advance of the kingdom and that we would be proclaimers of the gospel tomorrow.

You've put us all in different places. I know that some of the moms in here, they're stay -at -home moms, and tomorrow they won't venture out and see anybody else, but surely they'll be with their children and they'll take opportunity tomorrow to give

Christ to them. Tomorrow, many of the dads will get up, it'll be cold, they'll drive to work.

Lord, you've put them around specific people. Tomorrow, oh God, would you give them opportunity to point verbally, specifically, to Christ.

Lord, there are others in here who are gonna be doing various things tomorrow, whatever that may be. Perhaps they would take up a pen and a card and write a letter to that family member out of state and say, this is the gospel and this was what you must do in response to it.

Lord, may we not grow weary in the advancement of the kingdom. We pray thy kingdom come, in Jesus' name.

If you really believe the church is the building, the church is the house, the church is what

God's doing, this is his work. If we really believe what Ephesians says, we are the poimos, the masterpiece of God.