Sunday, May 2, 2021 PM

And we are going to take a look at some of Jesus' basic instructions to his

disciples.

Matthew 10 is a very helpful chapter in that it brings together many of Jesus' instructions

to his followers on what they should expect being his disciples, how they should go about

following his directives in a world that would often prove

contrary and hostile to the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Our series that we're going through on Sunday nights, the doctrine of Christian

resistance to the state is one that needs to be

talked about more and more in the world in which we live.

It used to be that there was not going to be many conflicts with the

state here in the United States of America

since biblical wisdom is enshrined in our founding documents

and God and his word at some level even

nominally honored amongst our hallowed institutions.

Even the president would be sworn in.

With his hand upon a Bible.

Originally his hand on an open Bible on Deuteronomy 28 that listed the blessings and

curses of a nation.

Of following the Lord.

And so for many generations, although this nation is far from perfect,

there wasn't going to be much concern about the

state from a federal level or a state level or a local level

targeting Christian people and Christian practice for any reason.

So that's been the general course of things.

Now we live in a time when that is not the case.

It has been through a long march through the institutions of a

cultural Marxism that has not hollowed out the

state but replaced a nominal or hollow Christianity with

paganism that is militant and zealous.

And so Christianity is considered dangerous,.

Radical, full of hate.

Christianity is equated with whiteness which is the new

word that stands for everything that is wrong with our nation in the

minds and in the writings and speaking of leadership.

And so Christianity is very much considered an

outlier should be put to the margins and pushed away until it's done away

with.

That's the notion of the folks in charge, not only

at the federal level, but also in many aspects, the state and local.

Well, this is not a great surprise seeing that that has been the opinion of higher

education for more than a generation and the point of view

in public education for quite some time.

Well, we should not be surprised that when they sow the wind, you reap the whirlwind.

Whatever you sow, you will reap.

Bible tells us that.

And so we live in a culture that is increasingly

hostile to Christianity.

This hostility will be expressed not only from cultural institutions, but

also governmental institutions.

What is our response?

How do we honor Jesus?

How do we honor Christ, love God supremely and love others rightly when we

need to resist the state at some level?

What does that look like?

We've been thinking about the fact that stories in the Bible abound about believers in God having

to choose to obey God and love God and follow God, keeping true to his word rather than

the instructions of some pagan dictator.

We have many famous stories of that, especially in the Old Testament.

But I want us to think carefully about the instructions Jesus gives to his disciples.

I believe that these are robust instructions.

I think there's flexibility here.

I think there's room for creativity and wisdom, for strategic and tactical

thinking, all in ways to bring honor and glory to Christ in succeeding in the mission that he has given to

us.

And I think a great starting point for that is to look at Matthew 10.

So I want us to read the Matthew 10 together, starting tonight and as future occasions

arise, moving from Matthew 10 on into practical examples that we find in the book of Acts.

I wanna think about together what it looks like to be faithful to Jesus Christ

and having to resist the state.

Why would we?

In what ways would we?

What would be the right thing to do?

And so on.

We need to think about this biblically as much as we can so that we have a right response.

So Matthew 10, beginning in verse one.

And when he called his 12 disciples to him, he gave them power over unclean spirits to cast them out and heal all kinds of

sickness and all kinds of disease.

Now, the names of the 12 apostles are these.

First, Simon, who was called Peter and Andrew his brother, James, the son of Zebedee, and John his brother, Philip and

Bartholomew, Thomas and Matthew the tax collector, James, the son of Alphaeus, and

Labeus, whose surname was Thaddeus, Simon the Canaanite, and Judas

Iscariot, who also betrayed him.

Now, in this list, we've got Peter, who's known for sticking his

foot in his mouth.

We have James and John, whom Jesus nicknamed the sons of thunder

due to some of their hot -headedness.

We also have Matthew, the tax collector, who knew how to be

in complete cooperation with a state government.

He collected taxes for the Romans, worked with soldiers and so on.

And then Simeon, or Simon the Canaanite, who would also be

identified later on in other gospels as a zealot.

So, not at all somebody who was working with any kind of state government.

So, you have a variety of disciples following Jesus.

They're not all cut from the same cloth, is what I'm saying.

So, Jesus has some instructions for them in going forth, preaching the gospel, declaring the

power of Jesus Christ, the good news, the good news, the glad tidings of the kingdom, and there are things gonna happen that are not going to go

smoothly, so then what?

Verse five, these 12 Jesus sent out and commanded them, saying, do not go into the way of the

Gentiles and do not enter a city of the Samaritans,

but rather go to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.

And you can see here how much Jesus is emphasizing the diversity of his church.

It's okay to laugh.

Why he does this, we'll see later.

He's not saying that the gospel is not for the Gentiles and the Samaritans and so on.

Oh, it definitely is, but the gospel comes to the Jew first and then to the Gentile.

And of course, the gospel came to the Jew first in the Old Testament, but there's a reason why he wants his disciples to focus

on the cities of the Jews.

Verse seven, and as you go, preach, saying, the kingdom of heaven is at hand.

The kingdom of heaven is at hand.

A kingdom indicates some system of authority.

There's a king and a kingdom means there's a set of laws.

There's a set of, there's a loyalty impressed upon here.

There's a competing set of authority.

There's a competing authority here versus what?

The Roman empire, the regions of Judea

and Galilee.

There is an authority here that's being declared.

Amongst everything else that's being declared, there's certainly authority being declared here.

Verse eight, heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out demons.

Freely you have received, freely give.

Provide neither gold nor silver nor copper in your money belts, nor bag for your journey, nor two tunics, nor sandals, nor staffs,

for a worker is worthy of his food.

He says, travel light, preach the word of God, and do these signs and wonders that I have

empowered you to do.

Now, whatever city or town you enter, inquire who in it is worthy and stay there till you go out.

And when you go into a household, greet it.

If the household is worthy, let your peace come upon it, but if it is not worthy, let your peace return to you.

And whoever will not receive you nor hear your words when you depart from that house or city, shake

off the dust from your feet.

Assuredly, I say to you, it will be more tolerable for the land of Sodom and Gomorrah in the day of judgment than

for that city.

So what is Jesus up to here?

Well, he's equipping and empowering his disciples for ministry, he focuses these 12 disciples on a specific

ministry.

I want you to go to these cities and villages, these locations where the Jews are,

and don't waste your time.

Don't waste your time.

If you go into a city and you can't find anybody willing to listen to the gospel message and they totally reject what you're saying,

even though there's signs and wonders, don't waste your time.

Wipe the dust off your feet and move on.

Judgment's coming for the rejection of the kingdom.

So the kingdom, so they're the heralds of the kingdom.

They're saying, hey, the kingdom of heaven is at hand.

The king has arrived.

The kingdom is at hand.

Well, what are you supposed to do?

Repent and believe in the gospel.

And here's all the signs and wonders that prove it.

If they reject the gospel, then what's going to happen?

There's gonna be judgment.

And he says, don't take too long.

Verse 16, behold, I send you out as sheep in the midst of wolves.

And here's where, now we're getting to the fact that, okay, we've already heard the possibility that they're gonna reject

you.

Maybe the whole city will be against you.

Maybe the city elders will get together and say, we've got some newcomers in town and here's what they're saying.

Everybody turn them out.

Now, this is in a culture where hospitality

means if somebody comes into your town, has no place to stay, you give them a place to

stay.

Inns and hotels were not the place that people went to stay.

If you are a Jew and you're traveling from village to town as a Jew, when you went into a city, you go to the

city square, kind of announce who you were, and then somebody would take you in.

If nobody did, that meant that you had a horrible town and there's stories in the Old Testament of what

happens to people who do that.

So if they go to a town preaching the gospel, doing the signs and wonders, and nobody will give them hospitality, there's no person of peace in the whole

town, then there's judgment coming for that town.

Now, behold, I send you out as sheep in the midst of wolves.

Look, there are going to be many people who are going to be opposed to you.

You're like sheep in the midst of wolves.

So that's not very encouraging.

Therefore, be wise as serpents and harmless as doves.

Well, this is the case of the matter.

Look at them, they're going through, they don't have nothing to steal, right?

They're not carrying a bunch of stuff with them that can be stripped from them to be stolen.

They're traveling light.

Their success depends on people accepting them in and giving them hospitality.

But the fact of the matter is, if they go from village to town, if the city government doesn't want them

there, there's nothing they can do.

They're sheep amongst wolves.

If the elders want to take them to the marketplace and have them flogged or whipped,

what are they going to do?

They can't do anything about it.

They're like sheep amidst wolves.

What happens if they get in trouble with even higher authorities?

Some regional governor is going to take offense at what's going on or get reports from people,

hey, these people are unsettling us.

And then the regional governor was like, well, I'm gonna put that down.

It sounds like one of those uprisings of a messianic movement.

We've had those before, I better put this down.

And then what might he do to them?

You're like sheep in the midst of wolves.

You don't have anything, you can't stop them from doing these things to you.

Therefore, be wise as serpents and harmless as doves.

So, wise as serpents.

Anytime you want to get persecuted, you can do it.

Anytime you want.

It's easy.

It's very easy.

Just go to a college campus and start yelling about Jesus.

Persecution will come before you know it.

They're gonna ask you about permits.

They're gonna be all, you can't stand right there.

This is not the place for this.

This is not your free speech zone.

This is a safe space, blah, blah, blah.

You're melting our snowflakes, get out of here.

Being wise as serpents means, what would be the, not being pragmatic, but what would be the most

effective way to succeed in the mission that Christ has given us?

Now, be as harmless as doves.

Don't be wicked.

Don't be impure.

Don't do things that are indeed wrong, evil, and

so on, so that there's nothing they can do to impugn your character.

So, be as wise as serpents and harmless as doves.

This is a great, just rule of thumb, this is a great bit of proverb,

some wisdom from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

You're like sheep amidst wolves, therefore be as wise as serpents and harmless as doves.

That gives us some, a starting point for some meditation, like how, according to the scripture, how

should we proceed in any given case?

I'll give you an example.

So, up in Edmonton, Alberta, James Coates' church,

the health authority of Alberta says, you know,

you can have services, but here's the thing, here's what you gotta wear, and here's all the things you can't do when you get together,

and here's how many people you can have, but other than that, you're free.

So, James Coates says, well, there's one Lord of the church, and you're not it, so we're gonna do things his way.

Fines, citations, harassment, persecution, James Coates gets thrown into jail,

gets thrown into prison.

He finally gets released, but not too long after that, the state authorities show up, and they

arrest the church building, and they surround it with three layers of fence, one of them having privacy

fence on it, it's a cloth, so you can't see through what they're doing to the building that doesn't belong to them, they just stole it from this

church.

They're trespassing, illegal seizure, and since they can't get the

church people to wear masks, they put a mask on the church building.

Now, well, we're like sheep in the midst of wolves, what are we gonna do?

They're the royal Mounties, it was the Mounties who did it.

The thing is, they've got way more guns, that's just the facts, they've got way more guns, and

way more ammo, what are you gonna do?

So, James Coates and his church, they were as wise as serpents and harmless as doves, what did they do?

They said, well, you can't arrest the church by surrounding the building,

that's just evidence of their materialistic pagan way of thinking.

Well, that was pretty dumb, you just wasted a bunch of effort, because they'd met the next week, in an undisclosed

location, right?

And they had church the same way they always do, just in a new place, right?

Wise as serpents, harmless as doves, there were protesters out there who tried to mess with the fence,

the church members up there, they didn't go trash

government property, okay, they're harmless as doves, are also wise as serpents.

They are resisting the order of the state, but they're doing so wise as serpents,

harmless as doves, okay, good example.

That is a good way to begin to meditate and think about, okay, when the state says, thou shalt

not, but then Christ says, thou shalt, well, we've got to resist the state, but remember, we're sheep among wolves, so

how do we do this?

Well, we start off by thinking, wise as serpents, harmless as doves.

And then verse 17 says, but beware of men, but beware of men.

Now that's helpful to meditate on and ponder on, beware of men.

Notice Jesus does not say, beware of some men,

he says, beware of men.

It's important to apply that across the board.

And he goes on to talk about those who are in positions of civil authority, okay?

So beware of men in positions of authority in the state, in

general, be wary.

The reason why?

Well, remember that Jesus did not commit himself to men because he knew it was incitement, John

2.

What is in the heart of men?

Read Romans 3.

Romans 3 verses 10 through 20.

What's going on in the heart of men?

Read Romans 1 verses 18 through 32.

What goes on in the heart of man?

What is there?

And then so in this depravity of man, having state authority,

and we don't wrestle against flesh and blood, but the principalities and powers and rulers, world forces of

the darkness are working through men in positions of power.

And listen, they're going to do some things.

Beware of men in general.

That means beware of President Biden and also means beware of President Trump.

Beware of men, okay?

Just because somebody is in a position of authority and you agree with them on, let's say, 80%, 60%,

it doesn't mean that you let your guard down.

Beware of men, okay?

Beware of men.

Our hope is not in men.

Our confidence is not in men or in princes.

We need to know what really is going on.

Notice what happens, but beware of men, for they will deliver you up to councils

and scourge you in their synagogues.

Now, that's a very Jewish kind of persecution, isn't it?

Okay, councils, synagogues,

so Sanhedrin and the lower councils, synagogues, the local

place where Jewish matters would be sorted out in their society.

So you're going to be delivered up to councils and they're going to scourge you in their synagogues.

Now, of course, this happened.

We think of Peter and John being brought before the Sanhedrin, before the council.

Verse 18, you will be brought before governors and kings.

Now, those are Gentiles.

Those are, that would be the Idumean Herod on the throne or it could be the Roman

procouncil or who knows where all they will go in service of their King Jesus, but

there are going to be governors and kings who will bring them before them because they're causing a disturbance, you know,

an Acts 17 type disturbance.

Those who turn the world upside down have come here also, claiming there's another king other than Caesar.

Well, that was true.

So notice what he says, you will be, they will deliver you up to councils and scourge you in their synagogues.

You'll be brought before governors and kings, why?

For my sake, for my sake as a testimony to them and to the Gentiles.

So when there is conflict between church and state, Jesus says, the

purpose of this is for my sake, like you say, you're preaching the gospel, you're

worshiping King Jesus, not submitting to the pagan tyranny of a state, trying to

keep you from doing those things.

I want to teach my children in my home that the truth of God's word, and then other people say, well, that's a child

abuse and hatred, and we're gonna take your children from you and all these different things that happen around the world

and happen now in our part of the world.

When we resist the state and we brought before these

men, it's for Christ's sake, then what is the purpose?

As a testimony, as a witness, as

an opportunity to speak to the value, the truth, the worth, the power, the

authority of Jesus Christ.

It is not an opportunity to come before them and then use weasel words.

It's not an opportunity to come before them and say, well, I didn't really understand the point of the ordinance and try to weasel

your way out of it.

No, this is your opportunity to give testimony to Jesus Christ.

This is not an opportunity to say, well, see, they don't like Jesus and they hate the Bible, so I won't

use any of that language when I talk to them because I don't want to make them mad.

That's not being as harmless as doves.

You've got your opportunity.

Now's the time to point out according to the word of God, what is true,

where they're wrong, how to get right, and how to live God's way.

Now's the time.

That's exactly what Peter and John did when they were brought before councils.

It's what Paul did.

He was looking for that opportunity with Nero.

Like, yeah, I'm gonna preach the gospel to Nero.

I'm gonna preach the gospel to the emperor.

Okay, so Jesus says when we're brought before the

civil authorities for the sake of Christ, this is for us to be a testimony to them and to the

Gentiles.

All right, so testimony to them.

Verse 19, but when they deliver you up, do not worry about how or what you should speak, for it will be given to you

in that hour.

What you should speak,.

For it is not you who speak, but the spirit of your father who speaks in you.

Just a reminder that God's word is the best.

So don't worry about how you're gonna get yourself off the hook through some

fancy maneuver.

The word of God is what needs to be said in this moment.

And there's plenty of clarity in the word of God to answer the issues at hand.

So there's gonna be all sorts of potential run in with the state.

Now, what does he say overall then?

Just kind of the beginning instructions.

What are the kind of the beginning instructions?

Well, here they are.

Recognize our position is generally weak.

Sheep among wolves.

But God is glorified in our weakness.

His strength shines forth in our weaknesses.

Okay?

Secondly, we are to be as wise as serpents and harmless as doves.

We are to think about the best way to approach things, to be as successful as we can in the name of Christ

without sacrificing our commitment to Christ and our character, not doing something that will bring dishonor to the

name of Christ.

And we are, now.

Thirdly, we are to beware of men.

Period.

General.

We are not to put our trust in men.

We are to understand what goes on in the heart of men according to the scriptures and recognize that anybody who is an authority

is not our hope and our trust.

We shouldn't be looking for that next conservative leader to get us out of this mess.

Right?

No, that's not the answer.

Okay?

Okay.

And then we are to recognize that, fourthly, we are to recognize when

there is conflict, this is an opportunity for giving testimony to Christ.

This is an opportunity.

This is success.

Many people today think that if there's ever conflict between church and state, that means that the church has failed somehow.

Like, why did you get the state mad?

You know, why are you getting ticketed in citations?

Why did you get on the news?

And people think that's a failure of the church because there's conflict.

Actually, Jesus says, here's opportunity to declare who he is.

It's a success when we are faithful to Christ, even in the midst of conflict.

Fifthly, we are not to worry, we are not to worry

about how to say things in just the right way so that everybody's happy.

No.

Through the Holy Spirit,.

We have a faithful word ready to speak.

Okay?

We have a faithful word ready to speak.

We're able to respond to the situation through God's word, so we don't have to worry.

So those are five lessons from the

beginning section of Christ's discipleship, when his apostles are going to face

hostility, even from the state.

Any observations, input from the elders on what we've talked about so far tonight?

Well, these are some vestiges of the Christian heritage that we have

in our country, wherein clearly the founders of the country

designed a government that was designed to be suspicious of man.

Checks and balances.

Nobody should have ultimate power.

A total belief in the depravity of man was inherent in many of the

structures of our nation.

And a lot of that has bled through down the

line.

The age is not to just simply, the divine right of kings theory of whatever

somebody in authority says you have to obey no matter what is not something that is very American.

Why not?

It's not very biblical, and there was a lot of work done at the very beginning for good reason

to not simply unthinkingly always obey state authority.

Half the pilgrims who came over were, after all, religious refugees

running from the state who wanted them dead just because they wanted to raise their children in the fear and the admonition of

the Lord.

So,

yeah.

Watchfulness is the price of liberty, and there needs to be a watchfulness even at the Christian school we support.

Anybody, Dwight or Ken or Randy?

Missing somebody.

Yes,

yeah.

Our choices still matter in the society.

And there is a difference between, there is a difference between someone who

celebrates the murder and the butchery and the selling off of dead

infants versus somebody who says that's abhorrent.

There's a difference between a Democrat and a Republican.

I'm not saying that the Republican is virtuous by being read

any more than in the day of Jeremiah, there'd be people who, they were working that valley

where they were slaughtering infants and offering them up to Molech every day versus some

in the city of Jerusalem who sighed in their heart about the wickedness but didn't really do

much.

There is a difference, though trust should be put in neither.

You know, we should exhort both to repentance, but I'm certainly more

thankful for at least those who are bothered by it than those who, you know, the New

York Assembly who stands up and applauds the butchery of children.

There is a difference.

You know, we should recognize that and try to strive for righteousness wherever we can.

Yes, yeah,

yeah,

yeah.

And that's something that, again, in paganism, everything has to be one, and that's why the doctrine of

sin is under attack in the church, to say, well, one sin is as sinful as another sin and there's no difference between any kind of sin.

Well, that's paganism, where everything has to be one and interchangeable.

God does not say that in his word, and there is a difference between

sins and the degree of sins and so on.

And so, yeah, it's not a bad thing to advocate for the lesser of two evils if

that's the choice that you have.

It is still worthwhile to try to make a decision that way.

We had to do,

it's just

kind of a

foreshadowing of that.

Yeah, and to be clear, one of the reasons why the state in Canada has been

so successful in persecuting, arresting, and fining, and stealing the property of local churches

there has been because of the church in Canada, because a whole bunch of them

are closed, doing whatever the magistrate tells them to do, claiming the divine right of kings.

Listen, there are some things that belong to Caesar.

Jesus said that.

Render unto the Lord the things that belong to God, which is everything, and then render unto Caesar the things that belong to Caesar.

But one thing that certainly does not belong to Caesar, one thing that does not belong to

Caesar is the ability to decide what belongs to Caesar.

God says what belongs to Caesar, and he says what doesn't belong to Caesar.

But the reason why tyranny is effective against the church in Canada is because of the church in Canada

who bows the knee and does not worship Christ, but

bows the knee and says, well, yeah, whatever they want, we'll do in the name of whatever good they claim.

And in America, it's going to be the same way.

Success against those who follow Christ, who want to worship Christ,

persecution will come in the name of righteousness, in the name of health, in the name of love, in the name of

brotherly kindness.

Persecution will come against Christians in America.

In the name of everything holy and good, persecution will rise against Christians in America.

And a whole bunch of the church is already hollowed out, spineless,

squish, best friends with the state.

And because of that, they're going to, now notice in Matthew 10, persecution was

twofold.

Persecution came from the synagogue and the state.

Well, it's already happening where the respected, accepted,

celebrated church leaders and church movements are very down in the

mouth about any Christian resistance.

They're in agreement with the state.

So when the state levels fines and comes after the church, they have parts of the

church saying, oh yes, you're right to do that, and they're wrong to resist.

There's always a religious plus the state persecution tandem.

That's what's happening in Canada, that's what happens here.

There's all kinds of people who in the name of Jesus, oh, they love Jesus, they have Bibles just like we do,

they sing songs, some of the same songs we sing.

They have all those same kind of affirmations, oh, we're biblical, we love Jesus, repeat ad

nauseum, we're biblical, biblical, biblical, who will join with

the state in condemning those who resist.

That's part of how it happens.

And so there has to be a clarifying moment where we say, you know, not everybody who says that they're being

biblical not everybody who says that they're being faithful to

Christ really is.

That's not something proven by mere assertion.

Now, maybe they've been discipled that way to think that way.

You can be sincere and sincerely wrong, but you have to have, the state will have to

have a cooperating compromised church, right?

That's how the Nazis took Germany.

They had a compromised cooperating Lutheran church where the other

Lutherans resisted, but they were in the minority.

So there's persecution on two fronts.

And the one we can understand if the state is against some sort of competing authority structure, but the one that

really hurts is when the persecution comes from those who

should be your allies.

So there is a need in our day to be,

not to be ecumenical, to stand for what we believe in the scriptures, to be clear about the gospel of Jesus Christ, to give

testimony and witness to that.

And then being wise and to be harmless as doves in that regard, but also be wise as serpents and recognize that we have a lot of

allies that we have not stood with.

And we have a lot of at least co -belligerence that we could stand with against tyranny.

The story comes to mind, and I know we talked about this in Sunday school this morning,

but the story comes to mind about how Caligula wanted to put a statue of himself in the temple in Jerusalem.

Caligula came before Nero and tens of thousands of Jews protested to

the local procurator, the procouncil there from Rome.

They hounded him, said, this is not going to happen.

You might as well kill us now.

Line up all your soldiers, kill us now.

They just, they got down and they said, here's our necks, slice our throats now, because this is not going to happen in our

land.

And so moving it was that he dared, the procouncil dared to defy the Roman

emperor, Caligula.

This was no democratic republic.

This was an empire.

Whatever Caligula said went, even making his horse a senator.

Whatever he wanted.

But this procouncil said, no, I'm not doing this to these people.

They're noble and right in this regard, and we're not going to do that here.

And then Caligula wrote back a letter and said, well, you best kill yourself.

But Caligula was dead before the letter got to him,.

So he was okay.

But there has to be, there has to be part of our stewardship,

part of being harmless as doves and as wise as serpents is going to be standing up and making a fuss about things.

Right?

That is actually what we're called to do.

Freedom, the right, the freedom of speech, freedom of the right to assemble.

We have all of these amendments in the Bill of Rights that we should

exercise, as if they are absolute.

And to bring attention to what is righteousness and what is truth.

That's part of our stewardship.

So if we have opportunity, let's take opportunity.

Whatever that is, recognize that that's part of our Christian stewardship.

I'm not saying that that's going to fix everything.

I'm saying that that's one thing we can do.

Yeah, that's right.

So that's encouraging to

remember the last thing, remember the lesser magistrate in Jeremiah's

day, they were ready to kill Jeremiah because he was preaching against the temple and they

were ready to kill him.

And then one of the elders said, that would not be the right thing to

do.

And then all of a sudden, the other one spoke up and said, yeah, he's right.

Just breaking the ice and saying what the truth is.

Sometimes all is, we live in a fear of man too much where he's like, well, I don't want to say anything.

Might as well say it.

Might as well say it.

These are opportunities.

All right, well, let's close by singing the doxology together.